Famous imposters

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FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

QUEEN ELIZABETH AS A YOUNG WOMAN

FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

BY

BRAM STOKER

AUTHOR OF "DRACULA," " PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF
HENRY IRVING," ETC., ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

IWew Korft

STURGIS & WALTON

COMPANY

1910

All rights reserved

Copyright 1910
By BRAM STOKER

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1910

PREFACE

The subject of imposture is always an interest-
ing one, and impostors in one shape or another are
likely to flourish as long as human nature remains
what it is, and society shows itself ready to be
gulled. The histories of famous cases of im-
posture in this book have been grouped together to
show that the art has been practised in many forms
— impersonators, pretenders, swindlers, and hum-
bugs of all kinds; those who have masqueraded in
order to acquire wealth, position, or fame, and
those who have done so merely for the love of the
art. So numerous are instances, indeed, that the
book cannot profess to exhaust a theme which
might easily fill a dozen volumes; its purpose is
simply to collect and record a number of the best
known instances. The author, nevertheless, whose
largest experience has lain in the field of fiction,
has aimed at dealing with his material as with the
material for a novel, except that all the facts given
are real and authentic. He has made no attempt
to treat the subject ethically; yet from a study of
these impostors, the objects they had in view, the
means they adopted, the risks they ran, and the
punishments which attended exposure, any reader
can draw his own conclusions.

281612

VI

PREFACE

Impostors of royalty are placed first on account
of the fascinating glamour of the throne which has
allured so many to the attempt. Perkin Warbeck
began a life of royal imposture at the age of seven-
teen and yet got an army round him and dared to
make war on Harry Hotspur before ending his
short and stormy life on the gallows. With a
crown for stake, it is not surprising that men have
been found willing to run even such risks as those
taken by the impostors of Sebastian of Portugal
and Louis XVII of France. That imposture,
even if unsuccessful, may be very difficult to detect,
is shown in the cases of Princess Olive and Cag-
liostro, and in those of Hannah Snell, Mary
East, and the many women who in military and
naval, as well as in civil, life assumed and main-
tained even in the din of battle the simulation of
men.

One of the most extraordinary and notorious im-
postures ever known was that of Arthur Orton, the
Tichborne Claimant, whose ultimate exposure ne-
cessitated the employment, at great public expense
of time and money, of the best judicial and forensic
wits in a legal process of unprecedented length.

The belief in witches, though not extinct in our
country even to-day, affords examples of the con-
verse of imposture, for in the majority of cases it
was the superstitions of society which attributed
powers of evil to innocent persons whose subse-

PREFACE vii

quent mock-trials and butchery made a public holi-
day for their so-called judges.

The long-continued doubt as to the true sex of
the Chevalier D'Eon shows how a belief, no mat-
ter how groundless, may persist. Many cases of
recent years may also be called in witness as to the
initial credulity of the public, and to show how ob-
stinacy maintains a belief so begun. The Hum-
bert case — too fresh in the public memory to de-
mand treatment here — the Lemoine case, and the
long roll of other fraudulent efforts to turn the
credulity of others to private gain, show how wide-
spread is the criminal net, and how daring and per-
severing are its manipulators.

The portion of the book which deals with the
tradition of the "Bisley Boy" has had, as it de-
manded, more full and detailed treatment than any
other one subject in the volume. Needless to say,
the author was at first glance inclined to put the
whole story aside as almost unworthy of serious at-
tention, or as one of those fanciful matters which
imagination has elaborated out of the records of the
past. The work which he had undertaken had,
however, to be done, and almost from the very start
of earnest enquiry it became manifest that here was
a subject which could not be altogether put aside
or made light of. There were too many circum-
stances — matters of exact record, striking in them-
selves and full of some strange mystery, all point-

Vlll

PREFACE

ing to a conclusion which one almost feared to
grasp as a possibility — to allow the question to be
relegated to the region of accepted myth. A little
preliminary work amongst books and maps seemed
to indicate that so far from the matter, vague and
inchoate as it was, being chimerical, it was one for
the most patient examination. It looked, indeed,
as if those concerned in making public the local
tradition, which had been buried or kept in hiding
somewhere for three centuries, were on the verge
of a discovery of more than national importance.
Accordingly, the author, with the aid of some
friends at Bisley and its neighbourhood, went over
the ground, and, using his eyes and ears, came to
his own conclusions. Further study being thus ne-
cessitated, the subject seemed to open out in a nat-
ural way. One after another the initial difficulties
appeared to find their own solutions and to vanish ;
a more searching investigation of the time and cir-
cumstances showed that there was little if any diffi-
culty in the way of the story being true in essence
if not in detail. Then, as point after point arising
from others already examined, assisted the story,
probability began to take the place of possibility;
until the whole gradually took shape as a chain,
link resting in the strength of link and forming a
cohesive whole. That this story impugns the
identity — and more than the identity — of Queen
Elizabeth, one of the most famous and glorious
rulers whom the world has seen, and hints at an ex-

PREFACE

IX

planation of circumstances in the life of that mon-
arch which have long puzzled historians, will entitle
it to the most serious consideration. In short, if it
be true, its investigation will tend to disclose the
greatest imposture known to history; and to this
end no honest means should be neglected.

B. S.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE
I. PRETENDERS 1

A. Perkin Warbeck 3

B. The Hidden King 17

C. Stephan Mali .31

D. The False Dauphins .36

E. Princess Olive . . 49

II. Practitioners of Magic . . . ....... 69

A. Paracelsus . . 71

B. Cagliostro 80

C. Mesmer 95

III. The Wandering Jew 107

IV. John Law 123

V. Witchcraft and Clairvoyance 145

A. Witches 147

B. Doctor Dee i55

C. La Voisin 164

D. Sir Edward Kelley . . . • • .175

E. Mother Damnable 182

F. Matthew Hopkins 190

VI. Arthur Orton (Tichborne claimant) . . . 201

VII. Women as Men 227

A. The Motive for Disguise 227

B. Hannah Snell 231

C. La Maupin 235

D. Mary East 241

\

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

VIII. Hoaxes, etc 249

A. Two London Hoaxes 249

B. The Cat Hoax 255

C. The Military Review 256

D. The Toil-Gate 256

E. The Marriage Hoax 257

F. Buried Treasure . . 258

G. Dean Swift's Hoax ...... 259

H. Hoaxed Burglars . 260

I. Bogus Sausages . 260

J. The Moon Hoax 262

IX. Chevalier d'Eon ............ 269

X. The Bisley Boy . 283

ILLUSTRATIONS

Queen Elizabeth as a Young Woman . . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Perkin Warbeck 4<

Edward IV as a Young Man 12

Olivia Serres 50

Cagliostro 80

John Law 124;

Arthur Orton 202

The Chevalier D'Eon 270

The Duke of Richmond 326

The Duchess of Richmond 33-1

I. PRETENDERS

FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

A. PERKIN WARBECK

RICHARD III literally carved his way to
the throne of England. It would hardly
be an exaggeration to say that he waded
to it through blood. Amongst those who suffered
for his unscrupulous ambition were George Duke
of Clarence, his own elder brother, Edward Prince
of Wales, who on the death of Edward IV was
the natural successor to the English throne, and
the brother of the latter, Richard Duke of York.
The two last mentioned were the princes murdered
in the Tower by their malignant uncle. These three
murders placed Richard Duke of Gloucester on
the throne, but at a cost of blood as well as of lesser
considerations which it is hard to estimate. Rich-
ard III left behind him a legacy of evil conse-
quences which was far-reaching. Henry VII, who
succeeded him, had naturally no easy task in steer-
ing through the many family complications result-
ing from the long-continued "Wars of the Roses" ;
but Richard's villany had created a new series of
complications on a more ignoble, if less criminal,

3

4 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

base. When Ambition, which deals in murder on
a wholesale scale, is striving its best to reap the
results aimed at, it is at least annoying to have the
road to success littered with the debris of lesser and
seemingly unnecessary crimes. Fraud is socially
a lesser evil than murder; and after all — humanly
speaking — much more easily got rid of. Thrones
and even dynasties were in the melting pot be-
tween the reigns of Edward III and Henry VII ;
so there were quite sufficient doubts and perplexities
to satisfy the energies of any aspirant to royal
honours — however militant he might be. Henry
VII's time was so far unpropitious that he was the
natural butt of all the shafts of unscrupulous ad-
venture. The first of these came in the person
of Lambert Simnel, the son of a baker, who in
1486 set himself up as Edward Plantagenet, Earl
of Warwick — then a prisoner in the Tower — son
of the murdered Duke of Clarence. It was mani-
festly a Yorkist plot, as he was supported by
Margaret Duchess Dowager of Burgundy (sister
of Edward IV) and others. With the assistance
of the Lord-Deputy (the Earl of Kildare) he was
crowned in Dublin as King Edward VI. The
pretensions of Simnel were overthrown by the ex-
hibition of the real Duke of Warwick, taken from
prison for the purpose. The attempt would have
been almost comic but that the effects were tragic.
Simnel's span of notoriety was only a year, the
close of which was attended with heavy slaughter

PERKIN WARBECK

PERKIN WARBECK 5

of his friends and mercenaries. He himself faded
into the obscurity of the minor life of the King's
household to which he was contemptuously rele-
gated. In fact the whole significance of the plot
was that it was the first of a series of frauds con-
sequent on the changes of political parties, and
served as a baton d'essai for the more serious im-
posture of Perkin Warbeck some five years after-
wards. It must, however, be borne in mind that
Simnel was a pretender on his own account and not
in any way a "pacemaker" for the later criminal;
he was in the nature of an unconscious forerunner,
but without any ostensible connection. Simnel
went his way, leaving, in the words of the kingly
murderer his uncle, the world free for his successor
in fraud "to bustle in."

The battle of Stoke, near Newark — the battle
which saw the end of the hopes of Simnel and his
upholders — was fought on 16 June, 1487. Five
years afterwards Perkin Warbeck made his ap-
pearance in Cork as Richard Plantagenet Duke of
York. The following facts regarding him and his
life previous to 1492 may help to place the reader
in a position to understand other events and to find
causes through the natural gateway of effects.

To Jehan Werbecque (or Osbeck as he was
called in Perkin's "confession"), Controller of the
town of Tournay in Picardy, and his wife, nee
Katherine de Faro, was born in 1474, a son chris-
tened Pierrequin and later known as Perkin War-

6 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

beck. The Low Countries in the fifteenth century
were essentially manufacturing and commercial,
and, as all countries were at that period of necessity
military, growing" youths were thus in touch at many
points with commerce, industry and war. Jehan
Werbecque's family was of the better middle class,
as witness his own position and employment; and
so his son spent the earlier years of his life amid
scenes and conditions conducive to ambitious
dreams. He had an uncle John Stalyn of Ghent.
A maternal aunt was married to Peter Flamme,
Receiver of Tournay and also Dean of the Guild
of Schelde Boatmen. A cousin, John Steinbeck,
was an official of Antwerp.

In the fifteenth century Flanders was an
important region in the manufacturing and com-
mercial worlds. It was the centre of the cloth in-
dustry; and the coming and going of the material
for the clothing of the world made prosperous the
shipmen not only of its own waters but those of
others. The ships of the pre-Tudor navy were
small affairs and of light draught suitable for river
traffic, and be sure that the Schelde with its facility
of access to the then British port of Calais, to Lille,
to Brussels, to Bruges, to Tournai, Ghent, and
Antwerp, was often itself a highway to the scenes
of Continental and British wars.

About 1483 or 1484, on account of the Flemish
War, Pierrequin left Tournay, proceeding to Ant-
werp, and to Middleburg, where he took service

PERKIN WARBECK 7

with a merchant, John Strewe, he being then a
young boy of ten or twelve. His next move was
to Portugal, whither he went with the wife of Sir
Edward Brampton, an adherent of the House of
York. A good deal of his early life is told in his
own confession made whilst he was a prisoner in
the Tower about 1497.

In Portugal he was for a year in the service of a
Knight named Peter Vacz de Cogna, who, accord-
ing to a statement in his confession, had only one
eye. In the Confession he also states in a general
way that with de Cogna he visited other countries.
After this he was with a Breton merchant, Pregent
Meno, of whom he states incidentally: "he made me
learn English." Pierrequin Werbecque must have
been a precocious boy — if all his statements are
true — for when he went to Ireland in 1491 with
Pregent Meno he was only seventeen years of age,
and there had been already crowded into his life a
fair amount of the equipment for enterprise in the
shape of experience, travel, languages, and so
forth.

It is likely that, to some extent at all events, the
imposture of Werbecque, or Warbeck, was forced
on him in the first instance, and was not a free act
on his own part. His suitability to the part he was
about to play was not altogether his own doing.
Nay, it is more than possible that his very blood
aided in the deception. Edward IV is described
as a handsome debonair young man, and Perkin

8 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Warbeck it is alleged, bore a marked likeness to
him. Horace Walpole indeed in his Historic
Doubts builds a good deal on this in his acceptance
of his kingship. Edward was notoriously a man of
evil life in the way of affairs of passion, and at all
times the way of ill-doing has been made easy for
a king. Any student of the period and of the race
of Plantagenet may easily accept it as fact that the
trend of likelihood if not of evidence is that Per-
kin Warbeck was a natural son of Edward IV.
Three hundred years later the infamous British
Royal Marriage Act made such difficulties or in-
conveniences as beset a king in the position of
Edward IV unnecessary: but in the fifteenth cen-
tury the usual way out of such messes was ultimate-
ly by the sword. Horace Walpole, who was a
clever and learned man, was satisfied that the per-
son who was known as Perkin Warbeck was in
reality that Richard Duke of York who was sup-
posed to have been murdered in the Tower in 1483
by Sir James Tyrrell, in furtherance of the am-
bitious schemes of his uncle. At any rate the peo-
ple in Cork in 1491 insisted on receiving Perkin
as of the House of York — at first as a son of the
murdered Duke of Clarence. Warbeck took oath
to the contrary before the Mayor of Cork; where-
upon the populace averred that he was a natural son
of Richard III. This, too, having been denied by
the newcomer, it was stated that he was the son of
the murdered Duke of York.

PERKIN WARBECK 9

It cannot be denied that the Irish people were in
this matter as unstable as they were swift in their
judgments, so that their actions are really not of
much account. Five years before they had re-
ceived the adventurer Lambert Simnel as their
king, and he had been crowned at Dublin. In any
case the allegations of Warbeck's supporters did
not march with established facts of gynecology.
The murdered Duke of York was born in 1472,
and, as not twenty years elapsed between this
period and Warbeck's appearance in Ireland, there
was not time in the ordinary process of nature, for
father and son to have arrived at such a quality of
manhood that the latter was able to appear as full
grown. Even allowing for an unusual swiftness
of growth common sense evidently rebelled at this,
and in 1492 Perkin Warbeck was received in his
final semblance of the Duke of York, himself
younger son of Edward IV. Many things were
possible at a period when the difficulties of voyage
and travel made even small distances insuperable.
At the end of the fifteenth century Ireland was still
so far removed from England that even Warbeck's
Irish successes, emphasised though they were by
the Earls of Desmond and Kildare and a numer-
ous body of supporters, were unknown in England
till considerably later. This is not strange if one
will consider that not until centuries later was there
a regular postal system, and that nearly two cen-
turies later the Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew

10 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Hale, who was^a firm believer in witchcraft, would
have condemned such a thing as telegraphy as an
invention of the Devil.

In the course of a historical narrative like the
present it must be borne in mind (amongst other
things) that in the fifteenth century, men ripened
more quickly than in the less strenuous and more
luxurious atmosphere of our own day. Especially
in the Tudor epoch physical gifts counted for far
more than is now possible; and as early (and too
often sudden) death was the general lot of those
in high places, the span of working life was pro-
longed rather by beginning early than by finish-
ing late. Even up to the time of the Napoleonic
Wars, promotion was often won with a rapidity
that would seem like an ambitious dream to young
soldiers of to-day. Perkin Warbeck, born in 1474,
was nineteen years of age in 1493, at which time the
Earl of Kildare spoke of "this French lad," yet
even then he was fighting King Henry VII, the
Harry Richmond who had overthrown at Bosworth
the great and unscrupulous Richard III. It must
also be remembered for a proper understanding of
his venture, that Perkin Warbeck was strongly sup-
ported and advised with great knowledge and sub-
tlety by some very resolute and influential persons.
Amongst these, in addition to his Irish "Cousins"
Kildare and Desmond, was Margaret, Duchess of
Burgundy, sister of Edward IV, who helped the
young adventurer in his plot by "coaching" him up

PERKIN WARBECK 11

in the part which he was to play, to such an extent
that, according to Lord Bacon, he was familiar
with the features of his alleged family and rela-
tives and even with the sort of questions likely to
be asked in this connection. In fact he was, in the-
atrical parlance, not only properly equipped but
"letter-perfect" in his part. Contemporary au-
thority gives as an additional cause for this per-
sonal knowledge, that the original Jehan de
Warbecque was a converted Jew, brought up in
England, of whom Edward IV was the godfather.
In any case it may in this age be accepted as a fact
that there was between Edward IV and Perkin
Warbeck so strong a likeness as to suggest a prima
facie possibility, if not a probability, of paternity.
Other possibilities crowd in to the support of such
a guess till it is likely to achieve the dimensions of
a belief. Even without any accuracy of historical
detail there is quite sufficient presumption to justify
guess-work on general lines. It were a compara-
tively easy task to follow the lead of Walpole and
create a new "historic doubt" after his pattern, the
argument of which would run thus:

After the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury in
1471, Edward IV had but little to contend against.
His powerful foes were all either dead or so ut-
terly beaten as to be powerless for effective war.
The Lancastrian hopes had disappeared with the
death of Henry VI in the Tower. Margaret of
Anjou (wife of Henry VI) defeated at Tewkes-

12 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

bury, was in prison. Warwick had been slain at
Barnet, and so far as fighting was concerned, King
Edward had a prolonged holiday. It was these
years of peace — when the coming and going of
even a king was unrecorded with that precision
which marks historical accuracy — that made the
period antecedent to Perkin's birth. Perkin bore
an unmistakable likeness to Edward IV. Not
merely that resemblance which marks a family or
a race but an individual likeness. Moreover the
young manhood of the two ran on parallel lines.
Edward was born in 1442, and in 1461, before he
was nineteen, won the battle of Mortimer's Cross
which, with Towton, placed him on the throne.
Perkin Warbeck at seventeen made his bid for
royalty. It is hardly necessary to consider what
is a manifest error in Perkin's Confession — that
he was only nine years old, not eleven, at the time
of the murder of Edward V. Nineteen was young
enough in all conscience to begin an intrigue for
a crown; but if the Confession is to be accepted as
gospel this would make him only seventeen at the
time of his going to Ireland — a manifest impos-
sibility. Any statement regarding one's own
birth is manifestly not to be relied on. At best
such can only be an assertion minus the possibility
of testing whence an error might come. Regard-
ing his parentage, in case it may be alleged that
there is no record of the wife of Jehan Warbecque
having been in England, it may be allowed to re-

EDWARD IV AS A YOUNG MAN

PERKIN WARBECK 1&

call a story which Alfred, Lord Tennyson used to
say was amongst the hundred best stories. It ran
thus :

A noble at the Court of Louis XIV was
extremely like the King, who on its being
pointed out to him sent for his double and
asked him:

"Was your mother ever at Court?"

Bowing low, he replied:

"No, sire; but my father was!"

Of course Perkin Warbeck's real adventures, in
the sense of dangers, began after his claim to be
the brother of Edward V was put forward.
Henry VII was not slow in taking whatever steps
might be necessary to protect his crown; there had
been but short shrift for Lambert Simnel, and
Perkin Warbeck was a much more dangerous as-
pirant. When Charles VIII invited him to Paris,
after the war with France had broken out, Hemy
besieged Boulogne and made a treaty under which
Perkin Warbeck was dismissed from France.
After making an attempt to capture Waterford,
the adventurer transferred the scene of his endeav-
ours from Ireland to Scotland which offered him
greater possibilities for intrigue on account of the
struggles between James IV and Henry VII.
James, who finally found it necessary to hasten his
departure, seemed to believe really in his preten-

14 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

sions, for he gave him in marriage a kinswoman of
his own, Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl
of Huntly — who by the way was re-married no
less than three times after Perkin Warbeck's death.
Through the influence of Henry VII, direct or
indirect, Perkin had to leave Scotland as he had
been previously forced from Burgundy and the
Low Countries. Country after country having
been closed to him, he made desperate efforts in
Cornwall, where he captured St. Michael's Mount,
and in Devon, where he laid siege to Exeter. This
however being raised by the Royal forces, he sought
sanctuary in Beaulieu in the New Forest where,
on promise of his life, he surrendered. He was
sent to the Tower and well treated ; but on attempt-
ing to escape thence a year later, 1499, he was
taken. He was hanged at Tyburn in the same
year.

Pierrequin Warbecque's enterprise was in any
case a desperate one and bound to end tragically —
unless, of course, he could succeed in establishing
his (alleged) claim to the throne in law and then
in supporting it at great odds. The latter would
necessitate his vanquishing two desperate fighting
men both of them devoid of fear or scruples.
— Richard III and Henry VII. In any case he
had the Houses of Lancaster, Plantagenet and
Tudor against him and he fought with the rope
round his neck.

PERKIN WARBECK 15

An Act of Parliament, 1 Richard III, Cap. 15,
made at Westminster on the 23 Jan., 1485, pre-
cluded all possibility — even if Warbeck should have
satisfied the nation of his identity — of a legal claim
to the throne, for it forbade any recognition of the
offspring of Lady Elizabeth Grey to whom Ed-
ward IV was secretly married, in May, 1464, the
issue of which marriage were Edward V and his
brother, Richard. The act is short and is worth
reading, if only for its quaint phraseology.

Cap XV. Item for certayn great causes and consideracions
touchynge the suretye of the kynges noble persone as
of this realme, by the advyce and assente of his lordes
spirituall and temporal, and the commons in this pres-
ent parliament assembled, and by the auctorite of the
same. It is ordeined established and enacted, that all
letters patentes, states confrymacions and actes of par-
lyament of anye castels seignowries, maners, landes,
teneinentes, fermes, fee fermes, franchises, liberties, or
other hereditamentes made at any tyme to Elizabeth
late wyfe of syr John Gray Knight; and now late call-
inge her selfe queene of England, by what so ever name
or names she be called in the same, shalbe from the fyrst
day of May last past utterly voyd, adnulled and of no
strengthe nor effecte in the lawe. And that no person
or persons bee charged to our sayde soveraygne lord the
Kynge, nor to the sayde Elyzabeth, of or for any is-
sues, prifites, or revenues of any of the sayde seignowries,
castelles, maners, landes, tenementes, fermes or other
hereditamentes nor for any trespas or other intromittynge
in the same, nor for anye by suretye by persone or per-

16 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

sones to her or to her use — made by them before the
sayde fyrst daie of May last passed, but shalbe therof
agaynste the sayd Kynge and the sayde Elizabeth clerly
discharged and acquyte forever." 1

i In the above memorandum no statement is made regarding Jane
Shore, though it may be that she had much to do with Perkin
Warbeck.

,B. THE HIDDEN KING

THE personality, nature and life of Sebas-
tian, King of Portugal, lent themselves to
the strange structure of events which
followed his strenuous and somewhat eccentric
and stormy life. He was born in 1554, and was the
son of Prince John and his wife Juana, daughter
of the Emperor Charles V. He succeeded his
grandfather, John III, at the age of three. His
long minority aided the special development of his
character. The preceptor appointed to rule his
youth was a Jesuit, Luiz-Goncalvoz de Camara.
Not unnaturally his teacher used his position to
further the religious aims and intrigues of his
strenuous Order. Sebastian was the kind of youth
who is beloved by his female relatives — quite apart
from his being a King; and naturally he was
treated by the women in a manner to further his
waywardness. When he was fourteen years old he
was crowned. From thence on he insisted on
having his way in everything, and grew into
a young manhood which was of the type beloved
of an adventurous people. He was thus described :
"He was a headstrong violent nature, of reckless
courage, of boundless ambition founded on a deep

17

18 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

religious feeling. At the time of his coronation
he was called 'Another Alexander.' He loved
all kinds of danger, and found a keen pleasure in
going out in a tempest in a small boat and in
actually running under the guns of his own forts
where his commands were stringent that any vessel
coming in shore should be fired on. He was a nota-
ble horseman and could steer his charger efficiently
by the pressure of either knee — indeed he was of
such muscular vigour that he could, by the mere
stringency of the pressure of his knees, make a
powerful horse tremble and sweat. He was a
great swordsman, and quite fearless. 'What is
fear?' he used to say. Restless by nature he
hardly knew what it was to be tired."

And yet this young man — warrior as he was, had
a feminine cast of face; his features were symmet-
rically formed with just sufficient droop in the
lower lip to give the characteristic 'note' of Aus-
trian physiognomy. His complexion was as fine
and transparent as a girl's ; his eyes were clear and
of blue; his hair of reddish gold. His height was
medium, his figure fine; he was vigorous and
active. He had an air of profound gravity and
stern enthusiasm. Altogether he was, even with-
out his Royal state, just such a young man as might
stand for the idol of a young maid's dream.

And yet he did not seem much of a lover. When,
in 1576, he entered Spain to meet Philip II at
Guadaloupe to ask the hand of the Infanta Isabella

THE HIDDEN KING 19

in marriage, he was described as "cold as a wooer
as he was ardent as a warrior." His eyes were so
set on ambition that mere woman's beauty did not
seem to attract him. Events — even that event,
the meeting — fostered his ambition. When he
knelt to his host, the elder king kissed him and
addressed him as "Your Majesty" the first time
the great title had been used to a Portuguese king.
The effect must have come but little later for at
that meeting he kissed the hand of the old warrior,
the Duke of Alva, and uncovered to him. His
underlying pride, however, was shewn at the close
of that very meeting, for he claimed equal rights
in formality with the Spanish king; and there was
a danger that the visit of ceremony might end
worse than it began. Neither king would enter
the carriage in which they were to proceed together,
until the host suggested that as there were two
doors they should enter at the same time.

Sebastian's religious fervour and military ambi-
tion became one when he conceived the idea of
renewing the Crusades ; he would recover the Holy
Land from the dominion of the Paynim and be-
come himself master of Morocco in the doing of it.
With the latter object in his immediate view, he
made in 1574, against the wise counsels of Queen
Catherine, a sortie de reconnaissance of the Afri-
can coast; but without any result — except the
fixing of his resolution to proceed. In 1578 his
scheme was complete. He would listen to no

20 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

warning or counsel on the subject even from the
Pope, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, or the Duke
of Nassau. He seemed to foresee the realization
of his dreams, and would forego nothing. He
gathered an army of some 18,000 men (of which
less than 2,000 were horsemen) and about a dozen
cannon. The preparation was made with great
splendour — a sort of forerunner of the Great
Armada. It seemed to be, as in the case of the
projected invasion of England ten years later by
Spain, a case of "counting the chickens before they
were hatched."

Some indication of the number of adventurers
and camp followers accompanying the army is
given by the fact that the 800 craft ordained for
the invasion of Morocco carried in all some 24,000
persons, inclusive of the fighting men. The para-
phernalia and officials of victory comprised amongst
many other luxuries: lists for jousts, a crown ready
for the new King of Morocco to put on, and poets
with completed poems celebrating victory.

At this time Morocco was entering on the throes
of civil war. Muley Abd-el-Mulek, the reigning
Sultan, was opposed by his nephew, Mohammed,
and to aid the latter, who promised to bring in
400 horsemen, was the immediate object of Sebas-
tian. But the fiery young King of Portugal had
undertaken more than he was able to perform.
Abd-el-Mulek opposed his 18,000 Portuguese with
55,000 Moors, (of whom 36,000 were horsemen)

THE HIDDEN KING 21

and with three times his number of cannon. The
young Crusader's generalship was distinctly de-
fective; he was a fine fighting man, but a poor
commander. Instead of attacking at once on his
arrival and so putting the zeal of his own troops
and the discouragement of the enemy to the best
advantage, he wasted nearly a week in hunting par-
ties and ineffectual manoeuvring. When finally
issue was joined, Abd-el-Mulek, though he was
actually dying, surrounded the Portuguese forces
and cut them to pieces. Sebastian, though he
fought like a lion, and had three horses killed under
him, was hopelessly beaten. There was an at-
tendant piece of the grimmest comedy on record.
The Sultan died during the battle, but he was a
stern old warrior, and as he fell back in his litter
he put his finger on his lip to order with his last
movement that his death should be kept secret for
the time being. The officer beside him closed the
curtains and went on with the fight, pretending to
take orders from the dead man and to transmit
them to the captains.

The fate of Sebastian was sealed in that battle.
Whether he lived or died, he disappeared on 5
August, 1578. One story was that after the
battle of Alca9er-el-Kebir, his body stripped and
showing seven wounds was found in a heap of the
slain; that it was taken to Fez and there buried;
but was afterwards removed to Europe and found
resting place in the Convent of Belen. Another

22 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

story was that after a brilliant charge on his ene-
mies he was taken in, but having been rescued by
Lui de Brito he escaped unpursued. Certainly
no one seemed to have seen the King killed, and it
was strange that no part of his clothing or accoutre-
ments was ever found. These were of great splen-
dour, beauty and worth, and must have been easily
traceable. There was a rumour that on the night
following the battle some fugitives, amongst whom
was one of commanding distinction, sought refuge
at Arzilla.

Alcacer-el-Kebir was known as the "Battle of
the three Kings." All the principals engaged in
it perished. Sebastian was killed or disappeared.
Abd-el-Mulek died as we have seen, and Moham-
med was drowned in trying to cross the river.

The dubiety of Sebastian's death gave rise in
after years to several impostures.

The first began six years after Sebastian's suc-
cessor — his uncle, Cardinal Henry — was placed on
the throne. The impostor was known as the "King
of Penamacor." The son of a potter at Alcobaca,
he established himself at Albuquerque, within the
Spanish borders, somewhat to the north of Badajos,
and there gave himself out as "a survivor of the
African Campaign." As usual the public went a
little further and said openly that he was the miss-
ing Don Sebastian. At first he denied the soft im-
peachment, but later on the temptation became too
great for him and he accepted it and set up in

THE HIDDEN KING 23

Penamacor, where he became known as the "King
of Penamacor." He was arrested and paraded
through Lisbon, bareheaded, as if to let the public
see that he in no way resembled the personality of
Sebastian. He was sent to the galleys for life.
But he must have escaped, for later on he appeared
in Paris as Silvio Pellico, Duke of Normandy, and
was accepted as such in many of the salons in the
exclusive Faubourg St. Germain.

The second personator of Sebastian was one
Matheus Alvares, who having failed to become a
monk, a year later imitated the first impostor, and
in 1585 set up a hermitage at Ericeira. He bore
some resemblance to the late king in build, and in
the strength of this he boldly gave himself out as
"King Sebastian" and set out for Lisbon. But he
was arrested by the way and entered as a prisoner.
He was tried and executed with frightful acces-
sories to the execution.

The third artist in this imposture appeared in
1594. He was a Spaniard from Madrigal in Old
Castile — a cook, sixty years old (Sebastian would
have been just forty if he had lived). When ar-
rested he was given but short shrift and shared the
same ghastly fate as his predecessor.

The fourth, and last, imposture was more
serious. This time the personator began in Venice
in 1598, calling himself "Knight of the Cross."

As twenty years had now elapsed since the dis-
appearance of Sebastian, he would have changed

24 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

much in appearance, so in one respect the person-
ator had less to contend against. Moreover the
scene of endeavour was this time laid in Venice,
a place even more widely removed in the sixteenth
century from Lisbon by circumstances than by
geographical position. Again witnesses who could
give testimony to the individuality of the missing
King of twenty years ago were few and far be->
tween. But on the other hand the new impostor
had new difficulties to contend against. Henry,
the Cardinal, had only occupied the Portuguese
throne two years, for in 1580 Philip II of Spain
had united the two crowns, and had held the dual
monarchy for eighteen years. He was a very dif-
ferent antagonist from any one that might be of
purely Portuguese origin.

In the eyes of many of the people — like all the
Latin races naturally superstitious — one circum-
stance powerfully upheld the impostor's claim. So
long ago as 1587, Don John de Castro had made a
seemingly prophetic statement that Sebastian was
alive and would manifest himself in due time. His
utterance was, like most such prophecies of the kind,
"conducive to its own fulfilment ;" there were many
— and some of them powerful — who were willing at
the start to back up any initiator of such a claim.
In his time Sebastian had been used, so far as it
was possible to use a man of his temperament and
position, by the intriguers of the Catholic Church,
and the present occasion lent itself to their still-ex-

THE HIDDEN KING 25

istent aims. Rome was very powerful four cen-
turies ago, and its legions of adherents bound in
many ties, were scattered throughout the known
world. Be sure these could and would aid in any
movement or intrigue which could be useful to the
Church.

"The Knight of the Cross" — who insinuated,
though he did not state so, that he was a Royal per-
son was arrested on the showing of the Spanish
Ambassador. He was a born liar, with all the
readiness which the carrying out of such an adven-
ture as he had planned requires. Not only was he
well posted in known facts, but he seemed to be
actually proof against cross-examination. The
story he told was that after the battle of Alcacer-el-
Kebir he with some others, had sought temporary
refuge in Arzilla and in trying to make his way
from there to the East Indies, he had got to "Pres-
ter John's" land — the semi-fabled Ethiopia of those
days. From thence he had been turned back, and
had, after many adventures and much wandering —
in the course of which he had been bought and sold
a dozen times or more, found his way, alone, to
Venice. Amongst other statements he alleged that
Sebastian's confessor had already recognised and
acknowledged him; but he was doubtless ignorant,
when he made the statement, that Padre Mauricio,
Don Sebastian's confessor, fell with his king in
1578. Two things, one, a positive inference and
the other negative, told against him. He only

26 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

knew of such matters as had been made public in
depositions, and he did not know Portuguese. The
result of his first trial was that he was sent to prison
for two years.

But those two years of prison improved his case
immensely. In that time he learned the Portu-
guese language and many facts of history. One
of the first to believe — or to allege belief, in his
story, Fray Estevan de Sampayo, a Dominican
monk, was in 1599, sent by the Venetian authori-
ties to Portugal to obtain an accredited description
of the personal marks of King Sebastian. He re-
turned within a year with a list of sixteen personal
marks — attested by an Apostolic notary. Strange
to say the prisoner exhibited every one of them — a
complete agreement which in itself gave rise to the
new suspicion that the list had been made out by,
or on behalf of, the prisoner. The proof however
was accepted — for the time; and he was released
on the 28th of July, 1600 — but with the imperative,
humiliating proviso that he was to quit Venice
within four and twenty hours under penalty of be-
ing sent to the galleys. A number of his sup-
porters, who met him before he went, found that he
had in reality no sort of resemblance to Sebastian.
Don John de Castro, who was amongst them, said
that a great change in Sebastian seemed to have
taken place. (He had prophesied and adhered
to his prophecy. ) He now described him as a man
of medium height and powerful frame, with hair

THE HIDDEN KING 27

and beard of black or dark brown, and said he had
completely lost his beauty. "What has become of
my fairness?" the swarthy ex-prisoner used to
say. He had eyes of uncertain colour, not large but
sparkling; high cheek bones; long nose; thin lips
with the "Hapsburg droop" in the lower one. He
was short from the waist up. ( Sebastian's doublet
would fit no other person.) His right leg and arm
were longer than the left, the legs being slightly
bowed like Sebastian's. He had small feet with
extraordinarily high insteps; and large hands. "In
fine," Don John summed up illogically, "he is the
self-same Sebastian — except for such differences
as resulted from years and labours." Some other
particulars he added which are in no way helpful to
a conclusion.

The Impostor told his friends that he had in
1597, sent a messenger from Constantinople to
Portugal — one Marco Tullio Catizzone — who had
never returned. Thence he had travelled to Rome
— where, when he was just on the eve of being pre-
sented to the Holy Father, he was robbed of all he
had; thence to Verona and so on to Venice. After
his expulsion from Venice he seems to have found
his way to Leghorn and Florence, and thence on to
Naples, where he was handed over to the jurisdic-
tion of the Spanish Viceroy, the Count of Lemos,
who had visited him in prison, and who well remem-
bered King Sebastian whom he had seen when in
a diplomatic mission. The Viceroy came to the

28 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

conclusion that he bore no likeness at all to Sebas-
tian, that he was ignorant of all save the well known
historical facts that had been published, and that his
speech was of "corrupt Portuguese mingled with
tell-tale phrases of Calabrian dialect." Thereupon
he took active steps against him. One witness who
was produced, recognized in him the real Marco
Tullio Catizzone, and Count de Lemos sent for
his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, all of
whom he had deceived and deserted. His wife,
Donna Paula of Messina, acknowledged him; and
he confessed Ms crime. Condemned to the galleys
for life, Marco Tullio, out of consideration of a
possibility of an error of justice, was so far given
indulgence by the authorities that he did not have to
wear prison dress or labour at the oar. Many of
his supporters, who still believed in him, tried to
mitigate his lot and treated him as a companion; so
that the hulk at San Lucar, at the mouth of the
Guadalquiver became a minor centre of intrigue.
But still he was not content, and adventuring
further, he tried to get money from the wife of
Medina-Sidonia then Governor of Andalusia. He
was again arrested with some of his associates. In-
criminating documents were found on him. He
was racked and confessed all. And so in his real
name and parentage, Marco Tullio, son of Ippolit
Catizzone of Taverna, and of Petronia Cortes his
wife, and husband of Paula Gallardetta was exe-
cuted. He had, though of liberal education, never

THE HIDDEN KING 29

worked at any occupation or calling; but he had
previously to his great fraud, personated other men
— amongst them Don Diego of Arragon. On 23rd
of September, 1603, he was dragged on a hurdle to
the Square of San Lucar; his right hand was cut
off and he was hanged. Five of his companions,
including two priests, shared his fate.

But in a way he and the previous impostors had
a sort of posthumous revenge, for Sebastian had
now entered into the region of Romantic Belief.
He was, like King Arthur, the ideal and the heart
of a great myth. He became "The Hidden King"
who would some day return to aid his nation in the
hour of peril — the destined Ruler of the Fifth
Monarchy, the founder of an universal Empire of
Peace.

A hundred years ago, the custom in British thea-
tres was to finish the evening's performance with
a farce. On this occasion the tragedy had been
finished two centuries before the "comic relief"
came. The occasion was in the French occupation
of Portugal in 1807. The strange belief in the
Hidden King broke out afresh. A rigorous cen-
sorship of Sebastianist literature was without avail
— even though its disseminators were condemned
by the still-existing Inquisition. The old prophecy
was renewed, with a local and personal application
— Napoleon was to be destroyed in the Holy Week
of 1808, by the waiting Sebastian, whose approach
from his mysterious retreat was to be veiled with a

30 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

thick fog. There were to be new portents ; the sky
was to be emblazoned with a cross of the Order of
Aviz, and on March 19th a full moon was to occur
during the last quarter. All these things were
foretold in an egg, afterwards sent by Junot to the
National Museum. The general attitude of the
French people towards the subject was illustrated
by a remark in an ironical manner of one writer:
"what can be looked for from a people, one half of
whom await the Messiah, the other half Don Sebas-
tian?" The authority on the subject of King Se-
bastian, M. d'Antas, relates that as late as 1838,
after the crushing of a Sebastianist insurrection in
Brazil certain still believing Sebastianists were to
be seen along the coast peering through the fog for
the sails of the mythical ship which was to bring to
them the Hidden King who was then to reveal him-
self.

C. "STEFAN MALI"

THE FALSE CZAR

STEFAN MALI (Stephen the Little) was
an impostor who passed himself off in
Montenegro as the Czar Peter III of Rus-
sia, who was supposed to have been murdered in
1762. He appeared in the Bocche di Cattaro in
1767. No one seemed to know him or to doubt
him ; indeed after he had put forth his story he
did not escape identification. One witness who had
accompanied a state visit to Russia averred that
he recognized the features of the Czar whom he had
seen in St. Petersburg. Like all adventurers
Stefan Mali had good personal resources. An
adventurer, and especially an adventurer who is
also an impostor, must be an opportunist; and an
opportunist must be able to move in any direction at
any time; therefore he must be always ready for
any emergency. The time, the place, and the cir-
cumstances largely favoured the impostor in this
case. It is perhaps but fair to credit him with
foreknowledge, intention, and understanding of
all that he did. In after years he justified himself
in this respect and showed distinctly that he was
a man of brains and capable of using them. He

31

32 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

was no doubt not only able to sustain at the start
his alleged personality, but also to act under new
conditions and in new circumstances as they de-
veloped themselves, as a man of Czar Peter's char-
acter and acquired knowledge might have done.
Cesare Augusto Levi, who is the authority on this
subject, says, in his work "Venezia e il Montene-
gro": "He was of fine presence and well propor-
tioned form and of noble ways. He was so elo-
quent that he exercised with mere words a power
not only on the multitude but also on the higher
classes. . . . He must certainly have been
in St. Petersburg before he scaled Montene-
gro; and have known the true Peter III, for he
imitated his voice and his gestures — to the illusion-
ment of the Montenegrins. There is no certainty
of such a thing, but he must, in the belief of the
Vladika Sava have been a descendant of Stefano
Czernovich who reigned after Giorgio IV."

At that time Montenegro was ruled by Vladika
Sava, who having spent some twenty years in mo-
nastic life, was unfitted for the government of a
turbulent nation always harassed by the Turks and
always engaged in a struggle for bare existence.
The people of such a nation naturally wanted a
strong ruler, and as they were discontented under
the sway of Sava the recognition of Stefan Mali
was almost a foregone conclusion. He told a won-
derful story of his adventures since his reported
death — a story naturally interesting to such an ad-

-STEFAN MALI" 33

venturous people ; and as he stated his intention of
never returning to Russia, they were glad to add
such a new ally to their righting force for the main-
tenance of their independence. As the will of the
people was for the new-comer, the Vladika readily
consented to confine himself to his spiritual func-
tions and to allow Stefan to govern. The Vladika
of Montenegro held a strange office — one which
combined the functions of priest and generalissimo
— so that the new division of the labour of ruling
was rather welcome than otherwise to the people
of a nation where no man ever goes without arms.
Stephen — as he now was — governed well. He de-
voted himself fearlessly to the punishment of ill-
doing, and early in his reign had men shot for theft.
He established Courts of Justice and tried to
further means of communication throughout the
little kingdom, which, is, after all, little more than
a bare rock. He even so far impinged on Sava's
sacred office as to prohibit Sunday labour. In
fact his labours so much improved the outlook of
the Montenegrins that the result brought trouble
on himself as well as on the nation in general.
Hitherto, whatever foreign nations may have be-
lieved as to the authenticity of Stephen's claim,
they had deliberately closed their eyes to his new
existence, so long as under his rule the little nation
of Montenegro did not become a more dangerous
enemy to all or any .of them.

But the nations interested grew anxious at the

34 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

forward movement in Montenegro. Venice, then
the possessor of Dalmatia, was alarmed, and
Turkey regarded the new ruler as an indirect agent
of Russia. Together they declared war. This
was the moment when Fate declared that the Pre-
tender should show his latent weakness of charac-
ter. The Montenegrins are naturally so brave
that cowardice is unknown amongst them; but
Stephen did not dare to face the Turkish army,
which attacked Montenegro on all the land sides.
But the Montenegrins fought on till a chance came
to them after many months of waiting in the shape
of a fearful storm which desolated their enemies'
Camp. By a sudden swoop on the camp they
seized much ammunition of which they were sadly
in want and by the aid of which they gained de-
livery from their foes. The Russian government
seemed then to wake up to the importance of the
situation, and, after sending the Montenegrins
much help in the shape of war material, asked them
to join again in the war against the Turks. The
Empress Catherine in addition to this request,
sent another letter denouncing Stephen as an im-
postor. He admitted the charge and was put in
prison. But in the impending war a strong man
was wanted at the head of affairs; and Sava, who
now had the mundane side of his dual office once
more thrust again upon him, was a weak one.
The situation was saved by Prince George Dol-
gourouki, the representative of the Empress Cath-

"STEFAN MALI" 35

erine, who, with statesmanlike acumen, saw that
such a desperate need required an exceptional
remedy. He recognized the false Czar as Regent.
Stephen Mali, thus restored to power under such
powerful auspices, once more governed Monte-
negro until 1774, when he was murdered by the
Greek player Casamugna — by order, it is said, of
the Pasha of Scutari, Kara Mahmound.

By the irony of Fate this was exactly the way in
which the real Czar, whose personality he had
assumed, had died some dozen years before.

This impostor was perhaps the only one who in
the history of nations prospered finally in his
fraud. But as may be seen he was possessed of
higher gifts than most of his kind ; he was equal to
the emergencies which presented themselves — and
circumstances favoured him, rarely.

D. THE FALSE DAUPHINS

ON 21 January, 1793, Louis XVI of France
was beheaded in the Place de la Revolu-
tion, formerly Place de Louis Quinze.
From the moment his head fell, his only son the
Dauphin became by all constitutional usage, his
successor, Louis XVII. True the child-king was
in the hands of his enemies; but what mattered
that to believers in the "Divine Right." What
mattered it either that he was at that moment in
the prison of the Temple, where he had languished
since August 13, 1792, already consecrated to de-
struction, in one form or another. He was then
under eight years of age, and so an easy victim.
His gaoler, one Simon, had already been instructed
to bring him up as a "sansculotte." In the
furtherance of this dreadful ordinance he was
taught to drink and swear and to take a part in
ithe unrighteous songs and ceremonies of the Reign
of Terror. Under such conditions no one can be
sorry that death came to his relief. This was in
June, 1795 — he being then in his eleventh year.
In the stress and turmoil of such an overwhelming
cataclysm as the Revolution, but little notice was
taken of a death which, under other circumstances,

36

THE FALSE DAUPHINS 37

would undoubtedly have been of international in-
terest if not of importance. But by this time the
death of any one, so long as it was by violence,
was too common a matter to cause concern to others.
The Terror had practically glutted the lust for
blood. Under such conditions but little weight
was placed on the accuracy of records; and to this
day there survive practical inconveniences and dif-
ficulties in daily life from the then disruption of
ordered ways. The origin of such frauds or means
of fraud as are now before us is in uncertainty.
Shakespeare says:

"How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds
Makes ill deeds done."

The true or natural criminal is essentially an op-
portunist. The intention of crime, even if it be
only a desire to follow the line of least resistance,
is a permanent factor in such lives, but the direc-
tion, the mechanism, and the scope of the crime are
largely the result of the possibilities which open and
develop themselves from a fore-ordered condition
of things.

Here then was the opening which presented it-
self at the end of the eighteenth century. France
was in a state of social chaos. The fountains of
the deep were stirred, and no human intelligence
could do more than guess at what might result from
any individual effort of self-advancement. The
public conscience was debauched, and for all prac-

38 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

tical purposes the end justified the means. It was
an age of desperate adventure, of reckless enter-
prise, of unscrupulous methods. The Royalty of
France was overthrown — in abeyance till at least
such a time as some Colossus of brains or energy, or
good fortune, should set it up again. The hopes
of a great nation of return to a settled order of
things through constitutional and historical chan-
nels were centred in the succession to the Crown.
And through the violence of the upheaval any is-
sue was possible. The state of affairs just before
the death of Louis XVII gave a chance of success
to any desperate fraud. The old King was dead,
the new King was a child and in the hands of his
bitterest enemies. Even if anyone had cared to
vindicate his rights there seemed at present no way
of accomplishing this object. To any reckless and
unscrupulous adventurer here was an unique
chance. Here was a kingship going: a dar-
ing hand might grasp the crown which rested in so
perilous a manner on the head of a baby. More-
over the events of the last fifteen years of the
century had not only begotten daring which de-
pended on promptness, but had taught and fostered
desperation. It is a wonder to us who look back on
that time through the safety-giving mist of a cen-
tury, not that there was any attempt to get a crown,
if only by theft, but that there were not a hundred
attempts made for each one that history has re-
corded.

THE FALSE DAUPHINS 39

As a matter of fact, there were seven attempts
made to personate the dead Dauphin, son of Louis
XVI, that "son of St. Louis," who, in obedience
to Abbe Edgworth's direction to "ascend to
heaven," went somewhere where it is difficult —
or perhaps inexpedient — to follow him.

The first pretender appears to have been one
Jean Marie Hervagault, son of a tailor. His
qualification for the pretence appears to
have been but a slender one, that of having been
born in 1781, only about three years before the
Dauphin. This, taken by itself, would seem to be
but a poor equipment for such a crime ; but in com-
parison with some of the later claimants it was not
without reason of approximate possibility as far
as date was concerned. It was not this crim-
inal's first attempt at imposture, for he had
already pretended to be a son of la Vaucelle of
Longueville and of the Due d'Ursef. Having
been arrested at Hottot as a vagabond, he was taken
to Cherburg, where he was claimed by his father.
When claiming to be, like the old man in Mark
Twain's inimitable Huckleberry Finn, "the late
Dauphin," his story was that he had as a child been
carried from the prison of the Temple in a basket
of linen. In 1799 he was imprisoned at Chalons-
sur-Marne for a month. He was, however, so far
successful in his imposture as Louis XVII, that
after some adventures he actually achieved a good
following — chiefly of the landed interest and clerics.

40 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

He was condemned to two years' imprisonment at
Vitry, and afterwards to a term of twice that dura-
tion, during which he died, in 1812.

The second and third aspirants to the honour of
the vacant crown were inconspicuous persons pos-
sessing neither personal qualification nor apparent
claim of any sort except that of a desire for acquisi-
tion. One was Persat, an old soldier; the other,
Fontolive, a bricklayer. The pretence of either of
these men would have been entirely ridiculous but
for its entirely tragic consequences. There is
short shrift for the unsuccessful impostor of royalty
— even in an age of fluctuation between rebellion
and anarchy.

The fourth pretender was at least a better work-
man at crime than his predecessors. This was
Mathurin Brunneau — ostensibly a shoemaker but
in reality a vagabond peasant from Vezins, in the
department of Maine-et-Loire. He was a born
criminal as was shown by his early record. When
only eleven years of age he claimed to be the son of
the lord of the village, Baron de Vezins. He ob-
tained the sympathy of the Countess de Turpin de
Crisse, who seemed to have compassion for the boy.
Even when the fraud of his parentage was found
out she took him back into her household — but
amongst the servants. After this his life became
one of adventure. When he was fifteen he made a
tour through France. In 1803 he was put in the
House of Correction at St. Denis. In 1805 he

THE FALSE DAUPHINS 41

enlisted as a gunner. In 1815 he re-appeared with
an American passport bearing the name of Charles
de Navarre. His more ambitious attempt at per-
sonation in 1817, was not in the long run success-
ful. He claimed his rights, as "Dauphin" Bour-
bon under Louis XVIII, was arrested at St. Malo,
and confined at Bicetre. He got round him a
gang of persons of evil life, as shown by their vari-
ous records. One was a false priest, another a
prisoner for embezzlement, another an ex-bailiff
who was also a forger, another a deserter; with the
usual criminal concomitant of women, dishonoured
clergy and such like. At Rouen he was sentenced
to pay a fine of three thousand francs in addition
to imprisonment for seven years. He died in
prison.

The imposture regarding the Dauphin was like
a torch-race — so soon as the lighted torch fell from
the hand of one runner it was lifted by him who
followed. Brunneau, having disappeared into the
prison at Rouen, was succeeded by Henri Herbert
who made a dramatic appearance in Austria in
1818. At the Court in Mantone, the scene of his
appearance, he gave the name of Louis Charles de
Bourbon, Due de Normandie. His account of
himself, given in his book published in 1831, and
republished — with enlargements, by Chevalier del
Corso in 1850, is without any respect at all for the
credulity of his readers.

The story tells how an alleged doctor, one an-

42 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

swering to the not common name of Jenais-Ojar-
dias, some time before the death of the Dauphin
had had made a toy horse of sufficient size to con-
tain the baby king, the opening to the interior of
which was hidden by the saddle-cloth. The wife
of the gaoler Simon, helped in the plot, the carrying
out of which was attempted early in 1794. An-
other child about the Dauphin's size, dying or
marked for death by fatal disease, was drugged
and hidden in the interior. When the toy horse
was placed in the Dauphin's cell the children were
exchanged, the little king having also been
drugged for the purpose. It would almost seem
that the narrator here either lost his head or was
seized with a violent cacoethes scrihendi, for he most
unnecessarily again lugs in the episode adapted
from Trojan history. The worthy doctor of the
double name had another horse manufactured, this
time of life size. Into the alleged entrails of this
animal, which was harnessed with three real horses
as one of a team of four, the Dauphin, once
more drugged, was concealed. He was borne to
refuge in Belgium, where he was placed under
the protection of the Prince de Conde. By this
protector he was, according to his story, sent to
General Kleber who took him to Egypt as his
nephew under the name of Monsieur Louis. After
the battle of Marengo in 1800, he returned
to France, where he confided his secret to Lucien
Bonaparte and to Fouche (the Minister of Police),

THE FALSE DAUPHINS 43

who got him introduced to the Empress Josephine,
who recognised him by a scar over his right eye.
In 1804 (still according to his story), he embarked
for America and got away to the banks of the
Amazon, where amid the burning deserts (as he
put it) he had adventures capable of consuming
lesser romancists with envy. Some of these ad-
ventures were amongst a tribe called "the Mame-
lucks" — which name was at least reminiscent of his
alleged Egyptian experiences. From the burning
deserts on the banks of the Amazon he found his
way to Brazil, where a certain "Don Juan," late of
Portugal and at that time Regent of Brazil, gave
him asylum.

Leaving the hospitable home of Don Juan, he
returned to Paris in 1815. Here Conde introduced
him to the Duchesse d'Angouleme (his sister!)
and according to his own naive statement "the
Princess was greatly surprised," as indeed she
might well have been — quite as much as the witch of
Endor was by the appearance of Samuel. Having
been repulsed by his (alleged) sister, the alleged
king made a little excursion, embracing in its
erratic course Rhodes, England, Africa, Egypt,
Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. When in Austria
he met Silvio Pellico in prison. Having spent
some years himself in prison in the same countiy,
he went to Switzerland. Leaving Geneva in
1826, he entered France, under the name of Her-
bert. He was in Paris the following year under

44 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

the name of "Colonel Gustave," and forthwith re-
vived his fraud of being "the late Dauphin." In
1828, he appealed to the Chamber of Peers. To
this appeal he appears to have received no direct
reply; but apropos of it, Baron Mounier made a
proposition to the Chamber that in future no such
application should be received unless properly
signed and attested and presented by a member of
the Chamber. He gathered round him some dupes
who believed in him. To these he told a number of
strange lies based on some form of perverted truth,
but always taking care that those of whom he spoke
were already dead. Amongst them was the wife
of Simon, who had died in 1819. Desault, the
surgeon, who had medical care of Louis XVII,
and who died in 1795, the ex-Empress Josephine,
who died in 1814, General Pichegru, who died in
1804, and the Due de Bourbon (Prince de
Conde) who died in 1818. In the course of his
citation of the above names, he plays havoc with
generally accepted history — Desault according to
him did not die naturally but was poisoned. Jose-
phine died simply because she knew the secret of
the young King's escape. Pichegru died from a
similar cause and not by suicide. Fualdes was as-
sassinated, but it was because he knew the fatal
secret. With regard to one of his dead witnesses
whose name was Thomas-Ignace-Martin de Gal-
lardon, there is a rigmarole which would not be
accepted in the nursery of an idiot asylum. There

THE FALSE DAUPHINS 45

is a mixture of Pagan mythology and Christian
hagiology which would have been condemned by
Ananias himself. In one passage he talks of see-
ing suddenly before him — he could not tell (natur-
ally enough) whence he came — a sort of angel who
had wings, a long coat and a high hat. This super-
natural person ordered the narrator to tell the King
that he was in danger, and the only way to avoid
it was to have a good police and to keep the Sab-
bath. Having given his message the visitant rose
in the air and disappeared. Later on the sug-
gested angel told him to communicate with the Due
Decazes. The Duke naturally, and wisely enough,
handed the credulous peasant over to the care of a
doctor. Martin himself died, presumably by as-
sassination, in 1834.

The Revolution of 1830 awoke the pretensions of
Herbert, who now appeared as the Baron de Riche-
mont, and wrote to the Duchesse d'Angouleme,
his (supposed) sister, putting on her the blame of
all his troubles. But the consequences of this effort
were disastrous to him. He was arrested in
August, 1833. After hearing many witnesses the
Court condemned him to imprisonment for twelve
years. He was arraigned under the name of
"Ethelbert Louis-Hector-Alfred," calling himself
the "Baron de Richmont." He escaped from
Clairvaux, whither he had been transferred from
Saint-Pelagie, in 1835. In 1843 and 1846 he pub-
lished his memoirs — enlarged but omitting some

46 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

of his earlier assertions, which had been disproved.
He returned to France after the amnesty of 1840.
In 1848 he appealed — unheeded — to the National
Assembly. He died in 1855 at Gleyze.

The sixth "Late Dauphin" was a Polish Jew
called Naundorf — an impudent impostor not even
seeming suitably prepared by time for the part
which he had thus voluntarily undertaken, having
been born in 1775, and thus having been as old at
the birth of the Dauphin as the latter was when he
died. This individual had appeared in Berlin in
1810, and was married in Spandau eight years
later. He had been punished for incendiarism in
1824, and later got three years' imprisonment at
Brandenburg for coining. He may be considered
as a fairly good all-round — if unsuccessful — crim-
inal. In England he was imprisoned for debt.
He died in Delft in 1845.

The last attempt at impersonating Louis XVII,
the seventh, afforded what might in theatrical par-
lance be called the "comic relief" of the whole series,
both as regards means and results. This time the
claimant to the Kingship of France was none other
than a half-bred Iroquois, one called Eleazar, who
appeared to be the ninth son of Thomas Williams,
otherwise Thorakwaneken, and an Indian woman,
Mary Ann Konwatewentala. This lady, who
spoke only Iroquois, said at the opportune time she
was not the mother of Lazar (Iroquois for Elea-
zar). She made her mark as she could not write.

THE FALSE DAUPHINS 47

Eleazar had been almost an idiot till the age of
thirteen; but, being struck on the head by a stone,
recovered his memory and intelligence. He said
he remembered sitting on the knees of a beautiful
lady who wore a rich dress with a train. He also
remembered seeing in his childhood a terrible per-
son; shewn the picture of Simon he recognised him
with terror. He learned English but imperfectly,
became a Protestant and a missionary and married.
His profile was something like that of the typical
Bourbon. In 1841, the Prince de Joinville, see-
ing him on his travels in the United States, told
him (according to Eleazar's account) that he was
the son of a king, and got him to sign and seal a
parchment, already prepared, the same being a
solemn abdication of the Crown of France in favour
of Louis Philippe, made by Charles Louis, son of
Louis XVI, also styled Louis XVII King of
France and Navarre. The seal used was
the seal of France, the one used by the old Mon-
archy. The "poor Indian with untutored
mind" made with charming diffidence the saving
clause regarding the seal, — "if I am not mis-
taken." Of course there was in the abdication a
clause regarding the payment of a sum of money
"which would enable me to live in great luxury in
this country or in France as I might choose." The
Reverend Eleazar, despite his natural disadvan-
tages and difficulties, was more fortunate than his
fellow claimants inasmuch as the time of his im-

48 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

posture was more propitious. Louis Philippe,
who was always anxious to lessen the danger to his
tottering throne, made a settlement on him from
his Civil List, and the ''subsequent proceedings in-
terested him no more."

Altogether the Louis XVII impostures extended
over a period of some sixty years, beginning with
Hervagault's pretence soon after the death of the
Dauphin, and closing at Gleyze with the death of
Henri Herbert, the alleged Baron de Richmont
who appeared as the alleged Due de Normandie.

E. PRINCESS OLIVE

THE story of Mrs. Olive Serres, as nature
made it, was one thing; it was quite an-
other as she made it for herself. The re-
sult, before the story was completely told, was a
third; and, compared with the other, one of tran-
scendent importance. Altogether her efforts,
whatsoever they were and crowned never so ef-
fectively, showed a triumph in its way of the
thaumaturgic art of lying; but like all structures
built on sand it collapsed eventually. In the plain
version — nature's — the facts were simply as fol-
lows. She, and a brother of no importance, were
the children of a house painter living in Warwick,
one Robert Wilmot, and of Anna Maria his wife.
Having been born in 1772 she was under age
when in 1791 she was married, the ceremony there-
fore requiring licence supported by bond and affi-
davit. Her husband was John Thomas Serres
who ten years later was appointed marine painter
to King George III. Mr. and Mrs. Serres were
separated in 1804 after the birth of two daughters,
the elder of whom, born in 1797, became in 1822
the wife of Antony Thomas Ryves a portrait
painter — whom she divorced in 1847. Mrs. A. T.

49

50 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Ryves twelve years later filed a petition praying
that the marriage of her mother, made in 1791,
might be declared valid and she herself the legiti-
mate issue of that marriage. The case was heard
in 1861, Mrs. Ryves conducting it in person.
Having produced sufficient evidence of the mar-
riage and the birth, and there being no opposition,
the Court almost as a matter of course pronounced
the decree asked for. In this case no complications
in the way of birth or marriage of Mrs. Serres
were touched on.

Robert Wilmot, the house-painter, had an elder
brother James who became a Fellow of Trinity
College, Oxford, and went into the Church, taking
his degree of Doctor of Divinity. Through his
College he was presented in 1781 to the living of
Barton-on-the-heath, Warwickshire. The Stat-
utes of his College contained a prohibition against
marriage whilst a Fellow. James Wilmot D. D.
died in 1807 leaving his property between the two
children of Robert, after life-use by his brother.
James and Robert Wilmot had a sister Olive, who
was born in 1728 and married in 1754 to William
Payne with issue one daughter, Olivia, born in
1759. Robert Wilmot died in 1812.

Out of these rough materials Mrs. Olive Serres
set herself in due course to construct and carry out,
as time and opportunity allowed, and as occasions
presented themselves and developed, a fraudulent
romance in real life and action. She was, however,

OLIVIA SERRES

PRINCESS OLIVE 51

a very clever woman and in certain ways — as was
afterwards proved by her literary and artistic work
— well dowered by nature for the task — crooked
though it was — which she set for herself. Her
ability was shown not only by what she could do
and did at this time of her life, but by the manner
in which she developed her natural gifts as time
went on. In the sum of her working life, in which
the perspective of days becomes merged in that of
years, she touched on many subjects, not always of
an ordinary kind, which shewed often that she was
of conspicuous ability, having become accomplished
in several branches of art. She was a painter of
sufficient merit to have exhibited her work in the
Royal Academy in 1794 and to be appointed land-
scape-painter to the Prince of Wales in 1806. She
was a novelist, a press writer, an occasional poet
and in many ways of a ready pen. She was skilled
in some forms of occultism, and could cast horo-
scopes ; she wrote, in addition to a pamphlet on the
same subject, a book on the writings of Junius,
claiming to have discovered the identity of the
author — none other than James Wilmot D. D.
She wrote learnedly on disguised handwriting. In
fact she touched on the many phases of literary
effort which come within the scope of those who
live by the work of their brains. Perhaps, indeed,
it was her facility as a writer that helped to lead
her astray; for in her practical draughtsmanship
and in her brain teeming with romantic ideas she

52 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

found a means of availing herself of opportunities
suggested by her reckless ambition. Doubtless the
cramped and unpoetic life of her humble condition
in the house-painter's home in Warwick made her
fret and chafe under its natural restraint. But
when she saw her way to an effective scheme of en-
larging her self-importance she acted with extraor-
dinary daring and resource. As is usual with such
natures, when moral restraints have been aban-
doned, the pendulum swung to its opposite. As
she had been lowly she determined to be proud ; and
having fixed on her objective began to elaborate a
consistent scheme, utilising the facts of her own
surroundings as the foundation of her imposture.
She probably realised early that there must be a
base somewhere, and so proceeded to manufacture
or arrange for herself a new identity into which
the demonstrable facts of her actual life could be
wrought. At the same time she manifestly real-
ised that in a similar way fact and intention must
be interwoven throughout the whole of her con-
templated creation. Accordingly she created for
herself a new milieu which she supported by forged
documents of so clever a conceit and such excellent
workmanship, that they misled all who investigated
them, until they came within the purview of the
great lawyers of the day whose knowledge, logical
power, skill and determination were arrayed
against her. By a sort of intellectual metabolism
she changed the identities and conditions of her

PRINCESS OLIVE 53

own relations whom I have mentioned, always tak-
ing care that her story held together in essential
possibilities, and making use of the abnormalities
of those whose prototypes she introduced into fic-
tional life.

The changes made in her world of new condi-
tions were mainly as follows: Her uncle, the
Reverend James, who as a man of learning and
dignity was accustomed to high-class society, and
as a preacher of eminence occasionally in touch with
Crown and Court, became her father; and she her-
self the child of a secret marriage with a great lady
whose personal rank and condition would reflect
importance on her daughter. But proof, or alleged
proof, of some kind would be necessary and there
were too many persons at present living whose
testimony would be available for her undoing. So
her uncle James shifted his place and became her
grandfather. To this the circumstances of his
earlier life gave credibility in two ways; firstly be-
cause they allowed of his having made a secret
marriage, since he was forbidden to marry by the
statutes of his college, and secondly because they
gave a reasonable excuse for concealing his mar-
riage and the birth of a child, publicity regarding
which would have cost him his livelihood.

At this point the story began to grow logically,
and the whole scheme to expand cohesively. Her
genius as a writer of fiction was being proved ; and
with the strengthening of the intellectual nature

54 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

came the atrophy of the moral. She began to look
higher; and the seeds of imagination took root in
her vanity till the madness latent in her nature
turned wishes into beliefs and beliefs into facts.
As she was imagining on her own behoof, why not
imagine beneficially? This all took time, so that
when she was well prepared for her venture things
had moved on in the nation and the world as well
as in her fictitious romance. Manifestly she could
not make a start on her venture until the possibility
vanished of witnesses from the inner circle of her
own family being brought against her; so that she
could not safely begin machinations for some time.
She determined however to be ready when occasion
should serve. In the meantime she had to lead two
lives. Outwardly she was Olive Serres, daughter
of Robert Wilmot born in 1772 and married in
1791, and mother of two daughters. Inwardly
she was the same woman with the same birth, mar-
riage and motherhood, but of different descent be-
ing (imaginatively) grand-daughter of her (real)
uncle the Rev. James Wilmot D. D. The gaps in
the imaginary descent having been thus filled up as
made and provided in her own mind, she felt more
safe. Her uncle — so ran her fiction — had early
in his college life met and become friends with
Count Stanislaus Poniatowski who later became by
election King of Poland. Count Poniatowski had
a sister — whom the ingenious Olive dubbed "Prin-
cess of Poland" — who became the wife of her uncle

PRINCESS OLIVE 55

(now her grandfather) James. To them was born,
in 1750, a daughter Olive, the marriage being kept
secret for family reasons, and the child for the
same reason being passed off as the offspring of
Robert the housepainter. This child Olive, accord-
ing to the fiction, met His Royal Highness Henry
Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, brother of the
King, George III. They fell in love with each
other and were privately married — by the Rev.
James Wilmot D. D.— on 4 March 1*767. They
had issue one daughter, Olive, born at Warwick 3
April 1772. After living with her for four years
the Duke of Cumberland deserted his wife, who
was then pregnant, and in 1771 married — biga-
mously, it was alleged — Lady Anne Horton, sister
of Colonel Luttrell, daughter of Lord Irnliam, and
widow of Andrew Horton of Catton, Derbyshire.
The (alleged) Royal Duchess died in France in
1774, and the Duke in 1790.

Thus fact and fiction were arrayed together in a
very cumiing way. The birth of Olive Wilmot
(afterwards Serres) in 1772 was proved by a gen-
uine registry. Likewise that of her daughter Mrs.
Ryves. For all the rest the certificates were
forged. Moreover there w T as proof of another
Olive Wilmot whose existence, supported by gen-
uine registration, might avert suspicion; since it
would be difficult to prove after a lapse of time that
the Olive Wilmot born at Warwick in 1772 daugh-
ter of Robert (the house-painter), was not the

56 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

granddaughter of James (the Doctor of Divinity).
In case of necessity the real date (1759) of the
birth of Olive Wilmot sister of the Rev. James
could easily be altered to the fictitious date of the
birth of "Princess" Olive born 1750.

It was only in 1817 that Mrs. Serres began to
take active measures for carrying her imposture
into action ; and in the process she made some tenta-
tive efforts which afterwards made difficulty for
her. At first she sent out a story, through a
memorial to George III, that she was daughter of
the Duke of Cumberland by Mrs. Payne, wife of
Captain Payne and sister of James Wilmot D. D.
This she amended later in the same year by alleg-
ing that she was a natural daughter of the Duke
by the sister of Doctor Wilmot, whom he had se-
duced under promise of marriage. It was not till
after the deaths of George III and the Duke of
Kent in 1820, that the story took its third and final
form.

It should be noticed that care was taken not to
clash with laws already in existence or to run
counter to generally received facts. In 1772 was
passed the Royal Marriage Act (12 George III
Cap. 11) which nullified any marriage contracted
with anyone in the succession to the Crown to which
the Monarch had not given his sanction. There-
fore Mrs. Serres had fixed the (alleged) marriage
of (the alleged) Olive Wilmot with the Duke of
Cumberland as in 1767 — five years earlier — so that

PRINCESS OLIVE 57

the Act could not be brought forward as a bar to
its validity. Up to 1772 such marriages could take
place legally. Indeed there was actually a case in
existence — the Duke of Gloucester (another
brother of the King) having married the dowager
Countess of Waldegrave. It was ef common re-
pute that this marriage was the motive of the
King's resolve to have the Royal Marriage Act
added to the Statute book. At the main trial it
was alleged by Counsel, in making the petitioner's
claim, that the King (George III) was aware of
the Duke of Cumberland's marriage with Olive
Wilmot, although it was not known to the public,
and that when he heard of his marriage with Lady
Anne Horton he was very angry and would not al-
low them to come to Court.

The various allegations of Mrs. Serres as to her
mother's marriage were not treated seriously for a
long time but they were so persisted in that it be-
came necessary to have some denial in evidence.
Accordingly a law-case was entered. One which
became a cause celebre. It began in 1866 — just
about a hundred years from the time of the alleged
marriage. With such a long gap the difficulties
of disproving Mrs. Serres' allegations were much
increased. But there was no help for it; reasons
of State forbade the acceptance or even the doubt
of such a claim. The really important point was
that if by any chance the claimant should win, the
Succession would be endangered.

58 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

The presiding judge was the Lord Chief Justice,
Lord Cockburn. With him sat Lord Chief Baron
Pollock and the Judge Ordinary Sir James Wilde.
There was a special jury. The case took the form
of one in the English Probate Court made under
the "Legitimacy Declaration Act." In this case,
Mrs. Ryves, daughter of Mrs. Serres, was the pe-
titioner. Associated with her in the claim was her
son, who, however, is of no interest in the matter
and need not be considered. The petition stated
that Mrs. Ryves was the legitimate daughter of one
John Thomas Serres and Olive his wife, the said
Olive being, whilst living, a natural-born subject
and the legitimate daughter of Henry Frederick,
Duke of Cumberland and Oiive Wilmot, his wife.
That the said Olive Wilmot, born in 1750, was law-
fully married to His Royal Highness Henry Fred-
erick, Duke of Cumberland, fourth son of Fred-
erick Prince of Wales (thus being grandson of
George II and brother of King George III), on
4 March 1767, at the house of Thomas, Lord
Archer, in Grosvenor Square, London, the mar-
riage being performed by the Rev. James Wilmot
D. D., father of the said Olive Wilmot. That a
child, Olive, was born to them on 3 April 1772, who
in 1791 was married to John Thomas Serres. And
so on in accordance with the (alleged) facts above
given.

The strange position was that even if the pe-

PRINCESS OLIVE 59

titioner should win her main case she would prove
her own illegitimacy. For granting that the al-
leged Olive Serres should have been legally mar-
ried to the Duke of Cumberland, the Royal Mar-
riage Act, passed five years later, forbade the
union of the child of such a marriage, except with
the sanction of the reigning monarch.

In the making of the claim of Mrs. Ryves a
grave matter appeared — one which rendered it ab-
solutely necessary that the case should be heard in
the most formal and adequate way and settled once
for all. The matter was one affecting the legality
of the marriage of George III, and so touching
the legitimacy of his son afterwards George IV, his
son afterwards William IV and his son the Duke
of Kent, father of Queen Victoria — and so debar-
ring them and all their descendants from the Crown
of England. The points of contact were in docu-
ments insidiously though not overtly produced and
the preparation of which showed much constructive
skill in the world of fiction. Amongst the many
documents put in evidence by the Counsel for Mrs.
Ryves were two certificates of the (alleged) mar-
riage between Olive Wilmot and the Duke of Cum-
berland. On the back of each of these alleged cer-
tificates was written what purported to be a certifi-
cate of the marriage of George III to Hannah
Lightfoot performed in 1759 by J. Wilmot. The
wording of the documents varied slightly.

60 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

It was thus that the claim of Mrs. Ryves and her
son became linked up with the present and future
destinies of England. These alleged documents
too, brought the Attorney General upon the scene.
There were two reasons for this. Firstly the action
had to be taken against the Crown in the matter
of form ; secondly in such a case with the possibility
of such vast issues it was absolutely necessary that
every position should be carefully guarded, every
allegation jealously examined. In each case the
Attorney General was the proper official to act.

The Case of the Petitioners was prepared with
extraordinary care. There were amongst the doc-
uments produced, numbering over seventy, some
containing amongst them forty-three signatures of
Dr. Wilmot, sixteen of Lord Chatham, twelve of
Mr. Dunning (afterwards the 1st Baron Ash-
burton), twelve of George III, thirty-two of Lord
Warwick and eighteen of H.R.H., the Duke of
Kent, the father of Queen Victoria. Their coun-
sel stated that although these documents had been
repeatedly brought to the notice of the successive
Ministers of the Crown, it had never been sug-
gested until that day that they were forgeries.
This latter statement was traversed in Court by the
Lord Chief Baron, who called attention to a debate
on the subject in the House of Commons in which
they were denounced as forgeries.

In addition to those documents already quoted
were the following certificates :

PRINCESS OLIVE 61

"The marriage of these parties was this
day duly solemnized at Kew Chapel, ac-
cording to the rites and ceremonies of the
Church of England, by myself.

"J. Wilmot."
"George P."
"Hannah."
Witness to this marriage
"W. Pitt."
"Anne Taylor."

May 27, 1759.

April 17, 1759
"This is to Certify that the marriage o
these parties (George, Prince of Wales,
to Hannah Lightfoot) was duly solem-
nized this day, according to the rites and
ceremonies of the Church of England, at
their residence at Peckham, by myself.

"J. Wilmot."
"George Guelph."
"Hannah Lightfoot."
Witness to the marriage of these par-
ties,—

"William Pitt."
"Anne Taylor."

"I hereby Certify that George, Prince
of Wales, married Hannah Wheeler alias
Lightfoot, April 17, 1759, but from find-

62 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

ing the latter to be her right name I
solemnized the union of the said parties a
second time May the 27th, 1759, as the
Certificate affixed to this paper will con-
firm.

"J. Wilmot.

Witness (Torn)

The case for the Crown was strongly supported.
Not only did the Attorney-General, Sir Roundell
Palmer (afterwards Lord Chancellor and First
Earl of Selborne) appear himself, but he was sup-
ported by the Solicitor-General, the Queen's Ad-
vocate, Mr. Hannen and Mr. R. Bourke. The At-
torney-General made the defence himself. At the
outset it was difficult to know where to begin, for
everywhere undoubted and unchallenged facts were
interwoven with the structure of the case ; and of all
the weaknesses and foibles of the important persons
mentioned, full advantage was taken. The mar-
riage of the Duke of Gloucester to Lady Walde-
grave had made him unpopular in every way, and
he was at the time a persona ingrata at Court.
There had been rumours of scandal about the King
(when Prince of Wales) and the "Fair Quaker,"
Hannah Lightfoot. The anonymity of the author
of the celebrated "Letters of Junius," which at-
tacked the King so unmercifully, lent plausibility
to any story which might account for it. The case
of Mrs. Ryves, tried in 1861, in which her own

PRINCESS OLIVE 63

legitimacy had been proved and in which indis-
putable documents had been used, was taken as a
proof of her bona fides.

Mrs. Ryves herself was in the box for nearly the
whole of three days, during which she bore herself
firmly, refusing even to sit down when the presid-
ing judge courteously extended that privilege to
her. She was then, by her own statement, over
seventy years of age. In the course of her evi-
dence a Memorial to George IV was produced,
written by her mother, Mrs. Serres, in which the
word offspring was spelled "orf spring"; in com-
menting on which the Attorney-General produced
a congratulatory Ode to the Prince Regent on his
birthday in 1812, by the same author, in which oc-
curred the line :

"Hail valued heir orfspring of Heaven's smile."
Similar eccentric orthography was found in other
autograph papers of Mrs. Serres.

The Attorney-General, in opposing the claim,
alleged that the whole story of the Duke of Cum-
berland's marriage to Olive Wilmot was a concoc-
tion from beginning to end, and said that the mere
statement of the Petitioner's case was sufficient to
stamp its true character. That its folly and ab-
surdity were equal to its audacity; in every stage
it exposed itself to conviction by the simplest tests.
He added that the Petitioner might have dwelt so
long upon documents produced and fabricated by
others, that, with her memory impaired by old age,

64 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

the principle of veracity might have been poisoned,
and the offices of imagination and memory con-
founded to such an extent that she really believed
that things had been done and said in her presence
which were in fact entirely imaginary. No part
of her story was corroborated by a single authentic
document, or by a single extrinsic fact. The
forgery, falsehood and fraud of the case were
proved in many ways. The explanations were as
false and feeble as the story itself. "I cannot of
course," he said, "lay bare the whole history of the
concoction of these extraordinary documents, but
there are circumstances which indicate that they
were concocted by Mrs. Serres herself."

Having commented on some other matters
spoken of, but regarding which no evidence was ad-
duced, he proceeded to speak of the alleged wife
of Joseph Wilmot D. D., the Polish Princess, sis-
ter of Count Poniatowski, afterwards elected King
of Poland (1764), who was the mother of his
charming daughter, Olive. "The truth is," said
Sir Roundell, "that both the Polish Princess and
the charming daughter were pure myths; no such
persons ever existed — they were as entirely crea-
tures of the imagination as Shakespeare's Ferdi-
nand and Miranda."

As to the documents produced by the Petitioners
he remarked :

"What sort of documents were those which were produced?
The internal evidence proved that they were the most ridicu-

PRINCESS OLIVE 65

lous, absurd, preposterous series of forgeries that the per-
verted ingenuity of man ever invented . . . they were all
written on little scraps and slips of paper, such as no human
being would ever have used for the purpose of recording
transactions of this kind, and it would be proved that in every
one of these pieces of paper the watermark of date was want-
ing."

This was but a new variant of the remark
made by the Lord Chief Justice, just after the put-
ting-in of the alleged marriage Certificate of the
Prince of Wales and Hannah Lightf oot :

"The Court is, as I understand, asked solemnly to declare,
on the strength of two certificates, coming I know not whence,
written on two scraps of paper, that the marriage, the only
marriage of George III which the world believes to have
taken place, between His Majesty and Queen Charlotte, was
an invalid marriage, and consequently that all the Sovereigns
who have sat on the throne since his death, including Her
present Majesty, were not entitled to sit on the throne. That
is the conclusion which the Court is asked to come to upon
these two rubbishy pieces of paper, one signed 'George P.,'
and the other 'George Guelph.' I believe them to be gross
and rank forgeries. The Court has no difficulty in coming to
the conclusion, even assuming that the signatures had that
character of genuineness which they have not, that what is
asserted in these documents has not the slightest foundation
in fact."

With this view the Lord Chief Baron and the
Judge-Ordinary entirely concurred, the former ad-
ding :

the declarations of Hannah Lightfoot, if there
ever was such a person, cannot be received in evidence on the

66 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

faith of these documents . . . the only issues for the
jury are the issues in the cause and this is not an issue in
the cause, but an incidental issue. ... I think that these
documents, which the Lord Chief Justice has treated with all
the respect which properly belongs to them, are not genuine."

Before the Attorney General had finished the
statement of his case, he was interrupted by the
foreman of the jury, who said that the jury were
unanimously of opinion that there was no necessity
to hear any further evidence as they were convinced
that the signatures of the documents were not gen-
uine. On this the Lord Chief Justice said :

"You share the opinion which my learned brothers and I
have entertained for a long time; that every one of the docu-
ments is spurious."

As the Counsel for the Petitioners had "felt it his
duty to make some observations to the jury before
they delivered their verdict," and had made them,
the Lord Chief Justice summed up. Towards the
conclusion of his summing-up he said, in speaking
of the various conflicting stories put forth by Mrs.
Serres:

"In each of the claims which she made at different times,
she appealed to documents in her possession by which they
were supported. What was the irresistible inference? Why,
that documents were from time to time prepared to meet the
form which her claims from time to time assumed."

The jury, without hesitation, found that they
were not satisfied "that Olive Serres, the mother of

PRINCESS OLIVE 67

Mrs. Ryves, was the legitimate daughter of Henry
Frederick Duke of Cumberland and Olive his wife ;
and they were not satisfied that Henry Frederick,
Duke of Cumberland, was lawfully married to
Olive Wilmot on the 4th of March 1767 . . "
The case of Mrs. Serres is an instance of how a
person, otherwise comparatively harmless but af-
flicted with vanity and egotism, may be led away
into evil courses, from which, had she realised their
full iniquity, she might have shrunk. The only
thing outside the case we have been considering,
was that she separated from her husband ; which in-
deed was an affliction rather than a crime. She had
been married for thirteen years and had borne two
children, but so far as we know no impropriety was
ever alleged against her. One of her daughters re-
mained her constant companion till her twenty-
second year and through her long life held her and
her memory in filial devotion and respect. The
forethought, labour and invention which she de-
voted to the fraud, if properly and honestly used,
might have won for her a noteworthy place in the
history of her time. But as it was, she frittered
away in criminal work her good opportunities and
great talents, and ended her life within the rules
of the King's Bench.

II. PRACTITIONERS OF MAGIC

PARACELSUS

I FEEL that I ought to begin this record with
an apology to the manes of a great and fear-
less scholar, as earnest as he was honest, as
open-minded as he was great-hearted. I do so
because I wish to do what an unimportant man can
after the lapse of centuries, to help a younger gen-
eration to understand what such a man as I write
of can do and did under circumstances not possi-
ble in times of greater enlightenment. The lesson
which the story can tell to thinking youth cannot
be told in vain. The greatest asset which worth
has in this world is the irony of time. Contem-
poraneous opinion, though often correct, is gener-
ally on the meagre side of appreciation — prac-
tically always so with regard to anything new.
Such must in any case be encountered in matters of
the sixteenth century which being on the further
side of an age of discovery and reform had hard-
ened almost to the stage of ossification the beliefs
and methods of the outgoing order of things.
Prejudice — especially when it is based on science
and religion — dies hard: the very spirit whence
originates a stage of progress or reform, makes its
inherited follower tenacious of its traditions how-

71

72 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

ever short they may be. This is why any who, in
this later and more open minded age, may investi-
gate the intellectual discoveries of the past, owe
a special debt in the way of justice to the memories
of those to whom such fresh light is due. The
name and story of the individual known as Para-
celsus — scholar, scientist, open minded thinker and
teacher, earnest investigator and searcher for ele-
mental truths — is a case in point. Anyone who
contents himself with accepting the judgment of
four centuries passed upon the great Swiss thinker,
who had rendered famous in history his place of
birth, his canton and his nation, would inevitably
come to the conclusion that he was merely a char-
latan a little more clever than others of his kind;
an acceptor of all manner of eccentric beliefs (in-
cluding the efficacy of spirits and demons in path-
ological cases), a drunkard, a wastrel, an evil liver,
a practiser of necromancy, an astrologer, a ma-
gician, an atheist, an alchemist — indeed an "ist" of
all defamatory kinds within the terminology of the
sixteenth century and of all disputatious church-
men and scientists who have not agreed with his
theories and conclusions ever since.

Let us begin with the facts of his life. His
name was Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim,
and he was the son of a doctor living in Einsiedeln
in the canton of Schwyz, named Wilhelm Bom-
bast von Hohenheim, natural son of a Grand Mas-
ter of the Teutonic Order. He was born in 1490.

PARACELSUS 73

It was not uncommon for a man of that age who
was striving to make a name for himself, to assume
some nom de plume or de guerre; and with such a
family record as his own, it was no wonder that
on the threshold of his life the young Theophras-
tus did so. In the light of his later achievements,
we can well imagine that he had some definite pur-
pose in mind, or at least some guiding principle of
suggestiveness, in choosing such a compound word
from the Greek as Paracelsus (which is derived
from "para," meaning before, in the sense of su-
perior to, and Celsus, the name of an Epicurean
philosopher of the second century.) Celsus ap-
pears to have had views of great enlightenment ac-
cording to the thought of his own time. Unhap-
pily only fragments of his work remain, but as he
was a follower of Epicurus after an interval of be-
tween four and five centuries, it is possible to get
some idea of his main propositions. Like Epi-
curus he stood for nature. He did not believe in
fatalism, but he did in a supreme power. He was
a Platonist and held that there was no truth which
was against nature. It is easy to see from his life
and work that Theophrastus Bombast von Hohen-
heim shared his views. His intellectual attitude
was that of a true scientist — denying nothing prima
facie but investigating all.

"There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds."

74 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

His father moved in 1502 to Villach in Carin-
thia, where he practised medicine till his death in
1534. Theophrastus was a precocious boy; after
youthful study with his father, he entered the
University of Basel when he was about sixteen,
after which he prosecuted chemical researches un-
der the learned Trithemius Bishop of Sponheim
who had written on the subject of the Great elixir
— the common subject of the scientists of that day,
— and at Wurzburg. From thence he proceeded
to the great mines in the Tyrol, then belonging to
the Fugger family. Here he studied geology and
its kindred branches of learning — especially those
dealing with effects and so far as possible with
causes — metallurgy, mineral waters, and the dis-
eases of and accidents to mines and miners. The
theory of knowledge which he deduced from these
studies was that we must learn nature from nature.

In 1527, he returned to Basel, where he was ap-
pointed town physician. It was a characteristic
of his independence and of his mind, method and
design, that he lectured in the language of the place,
German, foregoing the Latin tongue, usual up to
that time for such teaching. He did not shrink
from a bold criticism of the medical ideas and
methods then current. The effect of this inde-
pendence and teaching was that for a couple of
years his reputation and his practice increased
wonderfully. But the time thus passed allowed
his enemies not only to see the danger for them that

PARACELSUS 75

lay ahead, but to take such action as they could to
obviate it. Reactionary forces are generally — if
not always — self -protective, without regard to the
right or wrong of the matter, and Paracelsus be-
gan to find that the self-interest and ignorance of
the many were too strong for him, and that their
unscrupulous attacks began to injure his work
seriously. He was called conjurer, necromancer,
and many such terms of obloquy. Then what we
may call his "professional" enemies felt themselves
strong enough to join in the attack. As he had
kept a careful eye on the purity of medicines in use,
the apothecaries, who, in those days worked in a
smaller field than now, and who found their
commerce more productive through guile than
excellence, became almost declared opponents.
Eventually he had to leave Basel. He went to
Esslingen, from which however he had to retire at
no distant period from sheer want.

Then began a period of wandering which really
lasted for the last dozen years of his life. This
time was mainly one of learning in many ways of
many things. The ground he covered must have
been immense, for he visited Colmar, Nurnberg,
Appengall, Zurich, Augsburg, Middelheim, and
travelled in Prussia, Austria, Hungary, Egypt,
Turkey, Russia, Tartary, Italy, the Low Countries
and Denmark. In Germany and Hungary he had
a bad time, being driven to supply even the bare
necessaries of life by odd — any — means, even to

76 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

availing himself of the credulity of others — cast-
ing nativities, telling fortunes, prescribing remedies
for animals of the farm such as cows and pigs, and
recovering stolen property; such a life indeed as
was the lot of a mediaeval "tramp." On the other
hand, as a contra he did worthy work as a military
surgeon in Italy, the Low Countries and Denmark.
When he got tired of his wandering life, he settled
down in Salsburg, in 1541, under the care and pro-
tection of the Archbishop Ernst. But he did not
long survive the prospect of rest; he died later in
the same year. The cause of his death is not
known with any certainty, but we can guess that
he had clamorous enemies as well as strong uphold-
ing from the conflicting causes given. Some said
that he died from the effects of a protracted de-
bauch, others that he was murdered by physicians
and apothecaries, or their agents, who had thrown
him over a cliff. In proof of this story it was said
that the surgeons had found a flaw or fracture in
his skull which must have been produced during
life.

He was buried in the churchyard of Saint Se-
bastian; but two centuries later, 1752, his bones
were moved to the porch of the church, and a mon-
ument erected over them.

His first book was printed in Augsburg in 1526.
His real monument was the collection of his com-
plete writings so far as was possible, the long
work of Johann Huser made in 1589-91. This

PARACELSUS 77

great work was published in German, from printed
copy supplemented by such manuscript as could be
discovered. Then and ever since there has been a
perpetual rain of statements against him and his
beliefs. Most of them are too silly for words ; but
it is a little disconcerting to find one writer of some
distinction repeating so late as 1856 all the malig-
nant twaddle of three centuries, saying amongst
other things that he believed in the transmutation
of metals and the possibility of an elixir vital, that
he boasted of having spirits at his command, one
of which he kept imprisoned in the hilt of his sword
and another in a jewel; that he could make any one
live forever; that he was proud to be called a
magician ; and had boasted of having a regular cor-
respondence with Galen in Hell. We read in
sensational journals and magazines of to-day about
certain living persons having — or saying that they
have — communion in the shape of "interviews"
with the dead; but this is too busy an age for un-
necessary contradictions and so such assertions are
allowed to pass. The same indifference may now
and again have been exhibited in the case of men
like Paracelsus.

Some things said of him may be accepted as be-
ing partially time, for his was an age of mysticism,
occultism, astrology, and all manner of strange and
weird beliefs. For instance it is alleged that he
held that life is an emanation from the stars; that
the sun governed the heart, the moon the brain,

78 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Jupiter the liver, Saturn the gall, Mercury the
lungs, Mars the bile, Venus the loins; that in each
stomach is a demon, that the belly is the grand
laboratory where all the ingredients are appor-
tioned and mixed; and that gold could cure ossi-
fication of the heart.

Is it any wonder that when in this age after cen-
turies of progress such absurd things are current
Paracelsus is shewn in contemporary and later por-
traits with a jewel in his hand transcribed Azoth —
the name given to his familiar daemon.

Those who repeat ad nauseam the absurd stories
of his alchemy generally omit to mention his gen-
uine discoveries and to tell of the wide scope of his
teaching. That he used mercury and opium for
healing purposes at a time when they were con-
demned ; that he did all he could to stop the practice
of administering the vile electuaries of the medi-
aeval pharmacopoeia; that he was one of the first
to use laudanum; that he perpetually held — to his
own detriment — that medical science should not be
secret; that he blamed strongly the fashion of his
time of accounting for natural phenomena by the
intervention of spirits or occult forces ; that he dep-
recated astrology ; that he insisted on the proper in-
vestigation of the properties of drugs and that they
should be used more simply and in smaller doses.
To these benefits and reforms his enemies answered
that he had made a pact with the devil. For re-
ward of his labours, his genius, his fearless strug-

PARACELSUS 79

gle for human good he had — with the exception of
a few spells of prosperity — only penury, want, ma-
licious ill-fame and ceaseless attacks by the pro-
fessors of religion and science. He was an original
investigator of open mind, of great ability and ap-
plication, and absolutely fearless. He was cen-
turies ahead of his time. We can all feel grateful
to that French writer who said:

"Tels sont les services eminents que Paracelse a rendu a
l'humanite souffrante, pour laquelle il montra toujours le
devouement le plus desinteresse; s'il en fut mal recom-
pense pendant sa vie que sa memoire au moins soit honoree."

CAGLIOSTRO

THE individual known to history as Comte
Cagliostro, or more familiarly as Caglios-
tro, was of the family name of Balsamo and
was received into the Church under the saintly
name of Joseph. The familiarity of history is an
appanage of greatness in some form. Greatness
is in no sense a quality of worth or morality. It
simply points to publicity, and if unsuccessful, to
infamy. Joseph Balsamo was of poor parentage
in the town of Palermo, Sicily, and was born in
1743. In his youth he did not exhibit any talent
whatever, such volcanic forces as he had being en-
tirely used in wickedness — base, purposeless, sor-
did wickedness, from which devolved no benefit
to any one — even to the the criminal instigator. In
order to achieve greatness, or publicity, in any
form, some remarkable quality is necessary; Joseph
Balsamo's claim was based not on isolated qualities
but on a union of many. In fact he appears to
have had every necessary ingredient for this kind
of success — except one, courage. In his case how-
ever, the lacking ingredient in the preparation of
his hell-broth was supplied by luck; though such
luck had to be paid for at the devil's usual price —

80

CAGLIOSTRO

CAGLIOSTRO 81

failure at the last. His biographers put his lead-
ing characteristics in rather a negative than a posi-
tive way — "indolent and unruly"; but as time went
on the evil became more marked — even ferae
naturae, poisonous growths, and miasmatic con-
ditions have to manifest themselves or to cease to
prevail. In the interval between young boyhood
and coming manhood, Balsamo's nature — such as it
was — began to develop, unscrupulousness working
on an imaginative basis being always a leading
characteristic. The unruly boy shewed powers of
becoming an unruly man, fear being the only re-
straining force ; and indolence giving way to wick-
edness. When he was about fifteen he was sent to
a monastery to learn chemistry and pharmacy.
The boy who had manifested a tendency to "grow
downwards" found the beginning of a kind of suc-
cess in these studies in which, to the surprise of all,
he exhibited a form of aptitude. Chemistry has
certain charms to a mind like his, for in its work-
ing are many strange surprises and lurid effects
not unattended with entrancing fears. These he
used before long to his own pleasure in the concern
of others. When he was expelled from the re-
ligious house he led a dissolute and criminal life in
Palermo. Amongst other wickednesses he robbed
his uncle and forged his will. Here too, he com-
mitted a crime, not devoid of a certain humorous
aspect, but which had a reflex action on Ms own
life. Under promise of revealing a hidden treas-

82 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

ure, he persuaded a goldworker, one Morano, to
give him custody of a quantity of his wares. It
was what, in criminal slang is called "a put-up job,"
and was worked by a gang of young thieves with
Balsamo at their head. Having filled the soft
head of the foolish goldsmith with ideas to suit his
purpose, Joseph brought him on a treasure hunt
into a cave where he was shortly surrounded by the
gang dressed as fiends, who, in the victim's paral-
ysis of fear, robbed him at their ease of some sixty
ounces of gold. Morano, as might have been ex-
pected, was not satisfied with the proceedings and
vowed vengeance which he tried to effect later.
Balsamo's pusillanimity worked hand in hand with
Morano's vindictiveness, to the effect that the cul-
prit incontinently absconded from his native town.
He conferred the benefit of his presence on Mes-
sina where he was naturally attracted to a noted
alchemist called Althotas, to whom he became a
sort of disciple. Althotas was a man of great
learning, according to the measure of that time and
his own occupation. He was skilled in Eastern
tongues and an adept occultist. It was said that
he had actually visited Mecca and Medina in the
disguise of an Oriental prince. Having attached
himself to Althotas, Cagliostro went with him to
Malta where he persuaded the Grand Master of
the Knights to supply them with a laboratory for
the manufacture of gold, and also with letters of

CAGLIOSTRO 83

introduction which he afterwards used with much
benefit to himself.

From Malta he went to Rome where he employed
himself in forging engravings. Like other crim-
inals, great and small, Comte Alessandro Caglios-
tro — as he had now become by his own creation of
nobility — had a faculty of working hard and intel-
ligently so long as the end he aimed at was to be
accomplished by crooked means. Work in the ordi-
nary ways of honesty he loathed and shunned ; but
work as a help to his nefarious schemes seemed to
be a jojr to him. Then he set himself up as a won-
der-worker, improving as he went on all the cus-
toms and tricks of that calling. He sold an elixir
which he said had all the potency usually attrib-
uted to such compounds but with an added efficacy
all its own. He pretended to be able to transmute
metals and to make himself invisible ; indeed to per-
form all the wonders of the alchemist, the "cheap
jack," and the charlatan. At Rome he became
acquainted with and married a very beautiful
woman, Lorenza de Feliciani, daughter of a lace-
maker, round whom later biographers weave ro-
mances. According to contemporary accounts she
seems to have been dowered with just such quali-
ties as were useful in such a life as she had entered
on. In addition to great and unusual beauty she
was graceful, passionate, seductive, clever, plau-
sible, soothing, and attractive in all ways dear and

84 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

convincing to men. She must have had some win-
ning charm which has lasted beyond her time, for
a hundred years afterwards we find so level-headed
a writer as Dr. Charles Mackay crediting her, quite
unwarrantably with, amongst other good qualities,
being a faithful wife. Her life certainly after her
marriage was such that faithfulness in any form
was one of the last things to expect in her. Her
husband was nothing less than a swindler of a pro-
tean kind. He had had a great number of aliases
before he finally fixed on Comte de Cagliostro as
a nomine de guerre. He called himself succes-
sively Chevalier de Fischio, Marquis de Melina (or
Melissa), Marquis de Pellegrini, Comte de Saint-
German, Baron de Belmonte; together with such
names as Fenix, Anna, Harat. He wrote a work
somewhat of the nature of a novel called Le Grand
Cophte — which he found useful later when he was
pushing his scheme of a sort of new Freemasonry.
After his marriage he visited several countries,
Egypt, Arabia, Persia, Poland, Russia, Greece,
Germany ; as well as such towns as Naples, Palermo,
Rhodes, Strasbourg, Paris, London, Lisbon,
Vienna, Venice, Madrid, Brussels — in fact any
place where many fools were crowded into a small
space. In many of these he found use for the
introductory letters of the Grand Master of the
Knights of Malta, as well as those of other dupes
from whom it was his habit to secure such letters
before the inevitable crash came. Wherever he

CAGLIOSTRO 85

travelled he was accustomed to learn all he could
of the manners, customs and facts of each place
he was in, thus accumulating a vast stock of a cer-
tain form of knowledge which he found most useful
in his chosen occupation — deceit. With regard to
the last he utilised every form of human credulity
which came under his notice. The latter half of
the eighteenth century was the very chosen time of
strange beliefs. Occultism became a fashion, espe-
cially amongst the richer classes, with the result that
every form of swindle came to the fore. At this
time Cagliostro, then nearing his fortieth year, be-
gan to have a widespread reputation for marvellous
cures. As mysticism in all sorts of forms had a
vogue, he used all the tricks of the cult, gathering
them from various countries, especially France and
Germany, where the fashion was pronounced. For
this trickery he used all his knowledge of the East
and all the picturesque aids to credulity which he
had picked up during his years of wandering; and
for his "patter," such medical terminology as he
had learned — he either became a doctor or invented
a title for himself. This he interlarded with
scraps of various forms of fraudulent occultism and
all sorts of suggestive images of eastern quasi-
religious profligacy. He took much of the imagery
which he used in his rituals of fraud from records
of ancient Egypt. This was a pretty safe ground
for his purpose, for in his time the Egypt of the
past was a sealed book. It was only in 1799 that

86 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

the Rosetta stone was discovered, and more than
ten years from then before Dr. Young was able
to translate its three inscriptions — Hieroglyphic
Demotic and Greek — whence Hieroglyphic knowl-
edge had its source. Omne ignotum pro magnifico
might well serve as a motto for all occultism, true or
false. Cagliostro, whose business it was to deceive
and mislead, understood this and took care that in
his cabalistic forms Egyptian signs were largely
mixed with the pentagon, the signs of the Zodiac,
and other mysterious symbols in common use. His
object was primarily to catch the eye and so arrest
the intelligence of any whom he wished to impress.
For this purpose he went about gorgeously dressed
and with impressive appointments. In Germany
for instance he always drove in a carriage with four
horses with courier and equerries in striking liveries.
Happily there is extant a pen picture of him by
Comte de Beugnot who met him in Paris at the
house of the Comtesse de la Motte :

"of medium height and fairly fat, of olive colour, with short
neck and round face, big protruberant eyes, a snub nose with
open nostrils."

This gives of him anything but an attractive pic-
ture; but yet M. de Beugnot says: "he made an
impression on women whenever he came into a
room." Perhaps his clothing helped, for it was not
of a commonplace kind. De Beugnot who was
manifestly a careful and intelligent observer again
comes to our aid with his pen:

CAGLIOSTRO 87

"He wore a coiffure new in France; his hair parted in sev-
eral little cadenottes (queues or tresses) uniting at the back
of the head in the form known as a 'catogan' (hair clubbed
or bunched). A dress, French fashion, of iron grey, laced
with gold, scarlet waistcoat broidered with bold point de spain,
red breeches, a basket-hilted sword and a hat with white
plumes I"

Aided by these adjuncts he was a great success
in Paris whither he returned in 1785. As an im-
postor he knew his business and played "the game"
well. When he was at work he brought to bear
the influence of all his "properties," amongst them a
tablecloth embroidered with cabalistic signs in
scarlet and the symbols of the Rosy Cross of high
degree; the same mysterious emblems marked the
globe without which no wizard's atelier is complete.

Here too were various little Egyptian figures —
"ushabtui" he would doubtless have called them had
the word been in use in his day. From these he
kept his dupes at a distance, guarding carefully
against any discovery. He evidently did not fear
to hurt the religious susceptibilities of any of his
votaries, for not only were the crucifix and other
emblems of the kind placed amongst the curios
of his ritual, but he made his invocation in the form
of a religious ceremony, going down on his knees
and in all ways cultivating the emotions of those
round him. He was aided by a young woman
whom he described as pure as an angel and of great
sensibility. The said young person kept her blue

88 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

eyes fixed on a globe full of water. Then he pro-
ceeded to expound the Great Secret which he told
his hearers had been the same since the beginning of
things and whose mystery had been guarded by Tem-
plars of the Rosy Cross, by Magicians, by Egyp-
tians and the like. He had claimed, as the Comte
Saint-German said, that he had already existed for
many centuries; that he was a contemporary of
Christ; and that he had predicted His crucifixion
by the Jews. As statements of this kind were made
mainly for the purpose of selling the elixir which
he peddled, it may easily be imagined that he did
not shrink from lying or blasphemy when such
seemed to suit his purpose. Daring and reckless-
ness in his statements seemed to further his business
success, so prophecy — or rather boastings of proph-
ecy after the event — became part of the great fraud.
Amongst other things he said that he had predicted
the taking of the Bastille. Such things shed a little
light on the methods of such impostors, and help
to lay bare the roots or principles through which
they flourish.

After his Parisian success he made a prolonged
tour in France. In la Vendee he boasted of some
fresh miracle — of his own doing — on each day ; and
at Lyons the boasting was repeated. Of course he
occasionally had bad times, for now and again even
the demons on whose acquaintance and help he
prided himself did not work. In London after
1772, things had become so bad with him that he had

CAGLIOSTRO 89

to work as a house painter under his own name.
Whatever may have been his skill in his art this
was probably about the only honest work he ever
did. He did not stick to it for long however, for
four years afterwards he lost three thousand pounds
by frauds of others by whom he was introduced to
fictitious lords and ladies. Here too he underwent
a term of imprisonment for debt.

Naturally such an impostor found in Freema-
sonry, which is a secret cult, a way of furthering
his ends. With the aid of his wife, who all
through their life together seems to have worked
with him, he founded a new branch of freemasonry
in which a good many rules of that wonderful
organisation were set at defiance. As the purpose
of the new cult was to defraud, its net was enlarged
by taking women into the body. The name used
for it was the Grand Egyptian Lodge — he being
himself the head of it under the title of the Cophte
and his wife the Grand Priestess. In the ritual
were some appalling ceremonies, and as these made
eventually for profitable publicity, the scheme was
a great success — and the elixir sold well. This
elixir was the backbone of his revenue ; and indeed
it would have been well worthy of success if it had
been all that he claimed for it. Dispensers of
elixirs are not usually backward in proclaiming the
virtues of their wares; but in his various settings
forth Cagliostro went further than others. He
claimed not only to restore youth and health and

90 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

to make them perpetual, but to restore lost inno-
cence and effect a whole moral regeneration. No
wonder that he achieved success and that money
rolled in! And no wonder that women, especially
of the upper classes, followed him like a flock of
sheep ! No wonder that a class rich, idle, pleasure-
loving", and fond of tasting and testing new sensa-
tions, found thrilling moments in the great impos-
tor's melange of mystery, religion, fear, and hope ;
of spirit-rapping and a sort of "black mass" in
which Christianity and Paganism mingled freely,
and where life and death, good and evil, whirled
together in a maddening dance.

It was not, however, through his alleged sorcery
that Cagliostro crept into a place in history; but
by the association of his name with a sordid crime
which involved the names of some of the great
ones of the earth. The story of the Queen's Neck-
lace, though he was acquitted at the trial which
concluded it, will be remembered when the vapour-
ings of the unscrupulous quack who had escaped a
thousand penalties justly earned, have been long
forgotten. Such is the irony of history! The
story of the necklace involved Marie Antoinette,
Cardinal Prince de Rohan, Comte de la Motte —
an officer of the private guard of "Monsieur" (the
Comte d'Artois), his wife Jeanne de Valois, de-
scended from Henry II through Saint-Remy, his
natural son and Nicole de Savigny. Louis XV
had ordered from MM. Boemer et Bassange, jew-

CAGLIOSTRO 91

ellers to the Court of France, a beautiful necklace
of extraordinary value for his mistress Madame du
Barry, but died before it was completed. The du
Barry was exiled by his successor, so the necklace
remained on the hands of its makers. It was, how-
ever, of so great intrinsic value that they could not
easily find a purchaser. They offered it to Marie
Antoinette for one million eight hundred thousand
livres; but the price was too high even for a queen,
and the necklace remained on hand. So Boemer
showed it to Madame de la Motte and offered to
give a commission on the sale to whoever should
find a buyer. She induced her husband, Comte de
la Motte, to join with her in a plot to accomplish
the sale. De la Motte was a friend of Cagliostro,
and he too was brought in as he had influence with
the Cardinal Prince de Rohan whom they looked on
as a likely person to be of service. He had his own
ambitions to acquire influence over the queen and
use her for political purposes as Mazarin had used
Anne of Austria. De Rohan was then a man of
fifty — not considered much of an age in these days,
but the Cardinal's life had not made for compara-
tive longevity. He was in fact something of that
class of fool which has no peer in folly — an old
fool ; and Jeanne de la Motte fooled him to the top
of his bent. She pretended to him that Marie An-
toinette was especially friendly to her, and shewed
him letters from the queen to herself all of which
had been forged for the purpose. As at this time

92 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Madame de la Motte had borrowed or otherwise
obtained from the Cardinal a hundred and twenty
thousand livres, she felt assured he could be used
for the contemplated fraud. She probably had not
ever even spoken to the queen but she was not
scrupulous in such a small matter as one more un-
truth. She finally persuaded him that Marie An-
toinette wished to purchase the necklace through
his agency, he acting for her and buying it in her
name. To aid in the scheme she got her pet forger,
Retaux de Vilette, to prepare a receipt signed
"Marie Antoinette de France." The Cardinal fell
into the trap and obtained the jewel, giving to
Boemer four bills due successively at intervals of
six months. At Versailles de Rohan gave the
casket containing the necklace to Madame de la
Motte, who in his presence handed it to a valet of
the royal household for conveyance to the queen.
The valet was none other than the forger Retaux de
Vilette. Madame de la Motte sent to the Cardinal
a letter by the same forger asking him to meet her
(the queen) in the shrubbery at Versailles between
eleven o'clock and midnight. To complete the de-
ception a girl was procured, one Olivia, who in
figure resembled the queen sufficiently to pass for
her in the dusk. The meeting between de Rohan
and the alleged queen was held at the Baths of
Apollo — to the deception and temporary satisfac-
tion of the ambitious churchman. When the first
instalment for the purchase of the necklace was due,

CAGLIOSTRO 93

Boemer tried to find out if the queen really had
possession of the necklace — which had in the mean-
while been brought to London, it was said, by
Comte de la Motte. As Boemer could not man-
age to get an audience with the queen he came to
the conclusion that he had been robbed, and made
the matter public. This was reported to M. de
Breteuil, Master of the King's household, and an
enemy of de Rohan. De Breteuil saw the queen
secretly and they agreed to act in concert in the
matter. Louis XVI asked for details of the pur-
chase from Boemer, who told the truth so far as
he knew it, producing as a proof the alleged receipt
of the queen. Louis pointed out to him that he
should have known that the queen did not sign
after the manner of the document. He then asked
de Rohan, who was Grand Almoner of France, for
his written justification. This being supplied, he
had him arrested and sent to the Bastille. Madame
de la Motte accused Cagliostro of the crime, alleg-
ing that he had persuaded de Rohan to buy the
necklace. She was also arrested as were Retaux de
Vilette, and, later on at Brussels, Olivia, who threw
some light on the fraud. The King brought the
whole matter before Parliament, which ordered a
prosecution. As the result of the trial which fol-
lowed, Comte de la Motte and Retaux de Vilette
were banished for life ; Jeanne de la Motte was con-
demned to make amende honourable, to be whipped
and branded with V on both shoulders, and to be

94 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

imprisoned for life. Olivia and Cagliostro were
acquitted. The Cardinal was cleared of all charges.
Nothing seems to have been done for the poor jew-
ellers, who, after all, had received more substantial
injury than any of the others, having lost nearly
two million livres.

After the affair of the Necklace, Cagliostro spent
a time in the Bastille and when free, after some
months, he and his wife travelled again in Europe.
In 1789 he was arrested at Rome by order of the
Inquisition and condemned to death as a Free-
mason. The punishment was later commuted to
perpetual imprisonment. He ended his days in the
Chateau de Saint-Leon near Rome. His wife was
condemned to perpetual seclusion and died in the
Convent of Sainte-Appolive.

MESMER

ALTHOUGH Frederic-Antoine Mesmer
made an astonishing discovery which, hav-
ing been tested and employed in thera-
peutics for a century, is accepted as a contribution
to science, he is included in the list of impostors
because, however sound his theory was, he used it
in the manner or surrounded with the atmosphere
of imposture. Indeed the implement which he used
in his practice, and which made him famous in
fashionable and idle society, was set forth as having
magic properties. He belonged to the same period
as Cagliostro, having been born but nine years
before him, in 1734, in Itzmang, Suabia; but the
impostor pure and simple easily picked up the dif-
ference by beginning his life-work earlier and fol-
lowing it quicker with regard to results. Mesmer
was not in any sense a precocious person. He was
thirty-two years of age when he took his degree of
Doctor of Medicine at Vienna in 1765. However
he had already chosen his subject, animal magnetism
as allied with medical therapeutics. His early
script under the title De planetarum influoci is
looked on as a legal reminiscence of judicial astron-
omy. He left Vienna because, he said, of a cabal

95

96 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

against him, and travelled in Europe, particularly
in Switzerland, before he went to Paris to seek his
fortune. This was in 1778, when he was some
forty-four years of age; his reputation, which had
been growing all the time, preceded him. He was
then a man of fine appearance, tall and important-
looking and conveying a sense of calm power. He
produced much sensation and was at once credited —
not without his own will or intention — with magic
power. He posed as a benefactor of humanity; a
position which was at once conceded to him, partly
owing to the fact that an extraordinary atmosphere
of calm seemed to surround him, which with his
natural air of assurance founded on self-belief, was
able to convey to his patients a sense of hope which
was of course very helpful in cases of nervous fail-
ure and depression. He settled in the Hotel Bouret
near the Place Vendome and so in the heart of
Paris; and at once undertook the treatment of
patients hitherto deemed incurable. Fashion took
up the new medical "craze" or "sensation," and he
at once became the vogue. It was at this time of
his life that Mesmer came to the parting of the
ways between earnest science and charlatanism.
So far as we know he still remained earnest in his
scientific belief — as indeed he was till the end of
his days. Inasmuch as fashion requires some con-
crete expression of its fancies, Mesmer soon used
the picturesque side of his brain for the service of
fashionable success. So he invented an appliance

MESMER 97

which soon became the talk of the town. This was
the famous baquet magique or magic tub, a sort of
covered bath, round which his patients were
arranged in tiers. To the bath were attached a
number of tubes, each of which was held by a
patient, who could touch with the end of it any
part of his or her body at will. After a while the
patients began to get excited, and many of them
went into convulsions. Amongst them walked
Mesmer, clad in an imposing dress suggestive of
mystery and carrying a long wand of alleged magic
power; often calming those who had already
reached the stage of being actually convulsed. His
usual method of producing something of the same
effect at private seances, was by holding the hand
of the patient, touching the forehead and making
"passes" with the open hand with fingers spread
out, and by crossing and uncrossing his arms with
great rapidity.

A well-attended seance must have been a curious
and not altogether pleasant experience even to a
wholesome spectator in full possession of his natural
faculties. The whole surroundings of the place
together with the previously cultured belief; the
dusk and mystery; the "nrysterious sympathy of
numbers" — as Dean Farrar called it; the spasmodic
snapping of the cords of tensity which took away
all traces of reserve or reticence from the men and
women present; the vague terror of the unknown,
that mysterious apprehension which is so potent

98 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

with the nerves of weak or imaginative people ; and,
it may be, the slipping of the dogs of conscience —
all these combined to wreck the moral and mental
stability of those present, most of whom it must be
remembered were actually ill, or imagined them-
selves to be so, which came practically to the same
thing. The psychical emotion was all very well
in the world of pleasure ; but these creatures became
physically sick through nervous strain. As de-
scribed by the historian, they expectorated freely a
viscous fluid, and their sickness passed into convul-
sions more or less violent ; the women naturally suc-
cumbing more readily and more quickly than the
men. This absolute collapse — half epileptic, half
hysterical — lasted varying periods according to the
influence exercised by the presence of the calm, self-
reliant operator. We of a later age, when electric
force has been satisfactorily harnessed and when
magnetism as a separate power is better understood,
may find it hard to understand that the most ad-
vanced and daring scientists of the time — to whom
Frederic-Antoine Mesmer was at least allied —
were satisfied that magnetism and electricity were
variants of the same mysterious force or power. It
was on this theory that he seems to have worked his
main idea to practical effect. The base of his sys-
tem was animal magnetism, which could be super-
induced or aided by mechanical appliances. He
did not deceive himself into believing that he had
invented the idea but was quite willing to make the

MESMER 99

utmost use he could of the discoveries and inven-
tions of others. So far as we can gather his inten-
tions from his acts, the main object in his scientific
work was to simplify the processes of turning emo-
tion into effect. Magnetism had already been
largely studied, and means were being constantly
sought for increasing its efficacy. Father Hehl
had brought to a point of accepted perfection the
manufacture of metal plates used in magnetic de-
velopment, and these Mesmer used, with the result
that a violent controversy took place between them.
So far as we can follow after the lapse of time,
Mesmer was consistent in his theories and their ap-
plication. He held that the principle was one of
planetary influence on the nervous system, and its
manifestation was by a process of alternate inten-
sion and remission. It is possible that Mesmer —
who held that the heavenly bodies floated in a limit-
less magnetic fluid and that he could make all sub-
stances, even such things as bread or dogs magnetic
— had in his mind the wisdom of following the same
theory in matters of lesser significance, though of
more individual import, than those of astronomy
and its correlated sciences. If so he was wise in his
generation, for later electricians have found that
the system of alternating currents especially at high
tension, is of vast practical importance. That he
was practical in his use of the ideas of others is
shown by the fact that he preferred the metallic
plates of Father Hehl to his own passes, even

100 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

though the report of the Royal Commission ruined
him — at any rate checked his success, by stating
that similar effects to those attending his passes
could be produced by other means, and that such
passes had no effect unless through the patient's
knowledge ; in fact that it was all the work of imag-
ination. Mesmer had been asked to appear before
the Commission of the Faculty of Medicine ap-
pointed in 1784 to investigate and report, but he
kept away. It would not have injured any man
to have appeared before such a commission if his
cause had been a good one. There were two such
commissions. The first was of the leading phy-
sicians of Paris, and included such men as Ben-
jamin Franklin, Lavoisier, the great chemist, and
'Bailly, the historian of astronomy.

It was distinctly to his disadvantage that Mes-
mer always kept at a distance the whole corps of
savants such as the Faculty of Medicine and the
Academy of Sciences — for they would no doubt
have accepted his views, visionary though they were,
if he could have shown any scientific base for them.
True medical science has always been suspicious of,
and cautious regarding, empiricism. More than
once he stood in his own light in this matter —
whether through obstinacy or doubt of his own the-
ory does not matter. For instance, in Vienna, when
his very existence as a scientist was at stake in the
matter of the effects of his treatment of Made-
moiselle Paradis, he introduced a humiliating

MESMER 101

clause in his challenge to the Faculty which caused
them to refuse to accept it. Mademoiselle Paradis
was blind and subject to convulsions. After treat-
ing her by his own method Mesmer said she was
cured. An oculist said, after testing, that she was as
blind as ever, and her family said that she was
still subject to convulsions. But Mesmer persisted
that she was cured, that there was a conspiracy
against him, and that Mademoiselle Paradis had
feigned. He challenged the Faculty of Medicine
on the subject of his discovery. Twenty- four pa-
tients were to be selected by the Faculty; of these
twelve were to be treated by Mesmerism and the
other half by the means ordinarily in use. The
condition he imposed was that the witnesses were
not to be of the Faculty.

Again, when in answer to a request on his part
that the French Government for the good of the
community should subsidise him, a proposal was
made to him, he did not receive it favourably. The
request he made to Marie Antoinette was that he
should have an estate and chateau and a handsome
income, so that he might go on experimenting; he
put the broad figures at four hundred or five hun-
dred thousand francs. The Government sugges-
tion was that he should have a pension of twenty
thousand francs and the Cross of Saint Michael
(Knighthood) if he would communicate for public
use, to a board of physicians nominated by the King,
such discoveries as he might make. After his re-

102 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

fusal of the Government proposition Mesmer went
to Spa, taking with him a number of his patients,
and there opened a magnetic establishment where
he renewed his Paris success. He asked Parlia-
ment to hold an impartial examination into the
theory and working of Animal Magnetism. Foiled
in his scheme of state purchase on his own terms,
he sold his secret to a group of societies, the mem-
bers of which were to pay him a subscription of a
hundred louis per capita. By this means he real-
ised some 340,000 livres — representing to-day over
a million. The associated body was composed of
twenty-four societies called "societes de l'harmo-
nie" — a sort of Freemasonry, under a Grand Mas-
ter and Chiefs of the Order. A member had to be
at the time of admission twenty-five years of age,
of honest state and good name, not to smoke
tobacco, and to pay an annual subscription of at
least sixty francs. There were three grades in the
Order: Initiated Associates, Corresponding Asso-
ciates and Uninitiated. Amongst those belonging
to the Society were such men as Lafayette, d'Es-
premisnil, and Berthollet the great chemist. Ber-
thollet had, however, peculiar privileges, amongst
which was the right of criticism. On one occasion
he had a "row" with Mesmer about his charlatanism.
At length the French public, wearied with his
trickeries and angry with his cupidity, openly ex-
pressed their dissatisfaction. Whereupon he left
France, taking with him a fortune of three hun-

MESMER 103

dred and forty thousand francs. He went to Eng-
land and thence to Germany. Finally he settled
down in Mersbourg in his native country, Suabia,
where he died in 1815, at the age of eighty-one.

III. THE WANDERING JEW

THE WANDERING JEW

THE legend of the Wandering Jew has its
roots in a belief in the possibility of human
longevity beyond what is natural and
normal. It is connected with the story of the Cru-
cifixion and the mysteries that preceded and fol-
lowed it. Our account may find its starting point
in a book of extraordinary interest which made a
sensation in the seventeenth century and is still
delightful reading. The passage which should
arrest our attention is as follows:

"The story of the Wandering Jew is very strange and will
hardly obtain belief; yet there is a small account thereof set
down by Matthew Paris from the report of an Armenian
Bishop; who came into this Kingdom about four hundred
years ago, and had often entertained this wanderer at his
Table. That he was then alive, was first called Cartaphilus,
was keeper of the Judgment Hall, whence thrusting out our
Saviour with expostulation of his stay, was condemned to stay
until His return; was after baptized by Ananias, and by the
name of Joseph; was thirty years old in the dayes of our
Saviour, remembered the Saints that arised with Him, the
making of the Apostles' Creed, and their several peregrina-
tions. Surely were this true, he might be an happy arbitrator
in many Christian controversies; but must impardonably con-
demn the obstinacy of the Jews, who can contemn the Rhet-

107

108 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

orick of such miracles, and blindly behold so living and last-
ing conversions."

The above is taken from the work entitled "Pseu-
doxia Epidemica" or Enquiries into very many Re-
ceived Tenets and Commonly Presumed Truths
by Sir Thomas Brown, Knight M.D. This was
first published in 1640, so that the "about four
hundred years ago" mentioned would bring the
report of the Armenian Bishop to the first half of
the thirteenth century.

Thus unless there be something of an authorita-
tive character to upset the theory, Matthew Paris
must be taken as the first European narrator of the
story. As a matter of fact the legend began just
about the time thus arrived at. The great work in
Latin, "Historia Major" was begun by Roger of
Wendover and completed in 1259 by the monk Mat-
thew Paris. It was not however published — in our
ordinary sense of the word — until the beginning
of the year 1571 when Archbishop Parker took it
in hand. In the meantime the art of printing had
been established and the new world of thought and
the reproduction of its fruit, had been developed
for common use. The Historia Major was again
printed in Zurich in 1589 and 1606. The next
English edition was in 1640. This was reprinted
in Paris in 1644. The English edition of forty
years later, 1684, was a really fine specimen of typo-
graphic art. The authorship and date of its print-
ing are given : Matthaei Paris, Monachi Albanensis

THE WANDERING JEW 109

Angli London MDCLXXXIV. The script is
in ecclesiastical Latin and to any modern reader
is of a fresh and almost child-like sincerity which
at once disarms doubt or hostile criticism. Indeed
it affords a good example of the mechanism of
myth, showing how the littleness of human nature
s — vanity with its desire to shine and credulity in its
primitive form, are not subject to the controlling
influences of either sacredness of subject or the
rulings of common sense. It lends another mean-
ing to the quotation of Feste, the jester: Cucul-
lus non facit Monaclium. The artless narrative
recorded in the Historia Major makes the whole
inception of the myth transparent. In the mon-
astery of St. Albans a conversation is held by the
monks on one side and the Armenian Archbishop
— name not given, on the other. The interpreter
in French is one Henri Spigurnel a native of
Antioch, servant of the bishop. We can gather
even how Sir Thomas Brown M. D., doctor of
Norwich and most open-minded of scientists, lent
himself, unconsciously, to the propagation of error.
Brown reading, or hearing read, the work of Mat-
thew Paris took it for granted that the record was
correct and complete; and in his own book sum-
marises or generalises the statements made. For
instance he says that the Armenian bishop had
"often entertained this wanderer at his table" &c.
Now it was his servant who told the monks that
the wandering Jew whom he had seen and heard

110 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

speaking many times dined at the table of his lord
the Archbishop. This at once minimises the value
of the statement, for it does away at once with the
respect due to the bishop's high office and presumed
character, and with the sense of intellectual acumen
and accuracy which might be expected to emanate
from one of his scholarship and quality. Thus we
get the story not from an accredited Bishop on a
foreign mission — rare at the period and entrusted
only to men of note — but from the gossip of an
Armenian lacquey or valet, trying to show his own
importance to a credulous serving brother of the
monastery. And so, after all, coming from this
source it is to be accepted with exceeding care —
not to say doubt, even when seconded by the learned
monastic scribe Matthew. So, also, for instance
is his statement regarding the manner in which the
wanderer's life is miraculously prolonged. It is
to this effect. Each hundredth year Joseph falls
into a faint so that he lies for a time unconscious.
When he recovers he finds that his age is restored
to that which it was when the Lord suffered.
Joseph, it must be borne in mind, is the Wander-
ing Jew, once Cartaphilus, who had kept Pilate's
judgment-hall. Then Matthew himself takes up
the story and gives what professes to be the ipsis-
sima verba of the servant as to the conversation
between Christ and Cartaphilus which culminated
in the terrible doom pronounced on the janitor who,
from the showing, did not seem a whit worse than

THE WANDERING JEW 111

any of the crowd present on that momentous day
in Jerusalem. When Jesus, wearied already with
carrying the great cross, leaned for a moment
against the wall of the house of Cartaphilus just
opposite the Judgment-hall the official said:

" 'Vade Jesu citius, vade, quid moraris ?' et Jesus severo
vultu et oculo respiciens eum, dixit: 'Ego vado. Expectabis
donee veniam.' "

Now this is the whole and sole foundation of the
individual Wandering Jew. I say "individual'*
because there were before long other variants, and
many old beliefs and fables were appropriated and
used to back up the marvellous story, invented by
the Armenian servant and recorded by the learned
monk, Matthew. Amongst these beliefs were
those which taught that John the Baptist never
died; that the aloe blooms only once in a hundred
years; and that the phoenix renews itself in fire.
It is the tendency of legendary beliefs to group or
neucleate themselves as though there were a con-
scious and intentional effort at self -protection ; and
this, together with the natural human tendency to
enlarge and elaborate an accepted idea, is respon-
sible for much. The legend started in the thir-
teenth century, took root and flourished, and in
the very beginning of the seventeenth a variant
blossomed. In this Joseph, originally Cartaphilus,
became Ahasuerus. In the long pause the story,
after the manner of all things of earth, had grown,

112 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

details not being lacking. The world was in-
formed through the Bishop of Schleswig, how in
1547, at Hamburg, a man was seen in the Cathe-
dral who arrested attention — why we are not told.
He was about fifty years of age, of reverend man-
ner, and dressed in ragged clothes; he bowed low
at the name of Christ. Many of the nobility and
gentry who saw him recognised him as one whom
they had already seen in various places — England,
France, Italy, Hungary, Persia, Spain, Poland,
Moscow, Lieffland, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland,
&c. Inquiry being made of him, he told the Bishop
that he was Ahasuerus the shoe-maker of Jerusa-
lem, who had been present at the Crucifixion and
had ever since been always wandering. He was
well posted in history, especially regarding the
lives and sufferings of the Apostles, and told how,
when he had directed Christ to move on, the latter
had answered: "I will stand here and rest, but
thou shalt move on till the last day." He had been
first seen, we are told, at Lubeck.

It is strange that in an age of religious domina-
tion many of the legends of Our Saviour seem to
have been based on just such intolerant anger at
personal slight as might have ruled a short-tem-
pered, vain man. For instance look at one of the
Christ legends which was reproduced in poor
Ophelia's distracted mind apropos of the owl,
"They say, the owl was a baker's daughter." The
Gloucestershire legend runs that Christ having

THE WANDERING JEW 113

asked for bread at baking time the mistress of the
bakery took dough from the oven, but her daugh-
ter having remonstrated as to the size of the bene-
faction was turned into an owl. The penalty in-
flicted on the erring janitor of the Presidium is
another instance.

The "Wandering Jew" legend once started, was
hard to suppress. The thirteenth, fourteenth,
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were the ages of
Jew-baiting in the kingdoms of the West, and
naturally the stories took their colour from the pre-
vailing idea.

In 1644, Westphalus learned from various
sources that the Wandering Jew healed diseases,
and that he had said he was at Rome when it was
burned by Nero; that he had seen the return of
Saladin after his Eastern Conquests; that he had
been in Constantinople when Salimen had built the
royal mosque; that he knew Tamerlane the Scyth-
ian, and Scander Beg, Prince of Epirus; that he
had seen Bajazet carried in a cage by Tamerlane's
order; that he remembered the Caliphs of Baby-
lon and of Egypt, the Empire of the Saracens,
and the Crusades where he had known Godfrey de
Bouillon. Amongst other things he seems to have
apologised for not seeing the Sack of Jerusalem,
because he was at that time in Rome at the Court
of Vespasian.

The Ahasuerus version of the Wandering Jew
legend seems to have been the popular one

114 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

amongst the commonalty in England. As an in-
stance might be quoted the broad-sheet ballad of
1670. It is not without even historical significance
as it marks the measure of the time in many ways.
It is headed: "The Wandering Jew, or the Shoe-
maker of Jerusalem who lived when Our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ was crucified appointed by
Him to five until Coming again. Tune, The
Lady's Fall &c. Licens'd and Enter'd according
to order." The imprint runs: "Printed by and
for W. O. and sold by the Booksellers of Pye-
corner and London-Bridge."

A century and a half later — 1828 — was pub-
lished a much more pretentious work on the same
theme. This was a novel written by Rev. George
Croly. It was called: "Salathiel: a Story of the
Past, the Present, the Future." It was published
anonymously and had an immediate and lasting
success. It was founded on historical lines, the
author manifestly benefiting by the hints afforded
by the work of that consummate liar ( in a historical
sense) Westphalus — or his informant. Croly was
a strange man with a somewhat abnormal faculty
of abstraction. I used to hear of him from my
father who was a friend of his about a hundred
years ago. Being of gentle nature he did not
wish to cause any pain or concern to his family or
dependents; but at the same time he, as a writer,
had to guard himself against interruption and con-
sequent digression of his thoughts during the times

THE WANDERING JEW 115

he set apart for imaginative work. So he devised
a scheme which might often be put in practice with
advantage by others similarly employed. When
settling down to a spell of such work — which as
every creative writer knows involves periods of
mental abstraction though of bodily restlessness —
he would stick an adhesive wafer on his forehead.
The rule of the house was that when he might be
adorned in this wise no one was to speak to him,
or even notice him, except under special necessity.
The great vogue of Salathiel lasted some ten or
more years, when the torch of the Wandering Jew
was lighted by Eugene Sue the French novelist
who had just completed in the Debats his story
"Les Mysteres de Paris." As its successor he
chose the theme adopted by Croly, and the new
novel Le Juif -Errant ran with overwhelming suc-
cess in the Constitutionnel.

Sue was what in modern slang is called "up to
date." He knew every trick and dodge of the
world of advertisement, and in conjunction with
his editor, Dr. Veron, he used them all. But he
had good wares to exploit. His novels are really
excellent, though the changes in social life and in
religious, political and artistic matters, which took
place between 1844 and 1910, make some things in
them seem out of date. His great imagination, and
his firm and rapid grasp of salient facts susceptible
of being advantageously used in narrative, pointed
out to him a fresh road. It was not sufficient to the

116 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

hour and place that Cartaphilus — or Joseph — or
Ahasuerus, or Salathiel or whatever he might be
called — should purge his sin by his personal suffer-
ings alone. In the legend, up to then accepted, he
had long ago repented; so to increase the poig-
nancy of his sufferings, Sue took from the experi-
ence of his own time a means of embittering the
very inmost soul of such an one. He must be
made to feel that his existence is a curse not only
to himself but to all the world. To this end he at-
tached to the Wanderer the obligation of carrying
a fell disease. The quick brain of the great feuil-
letonist seized the dramatic moment for utilising
the occasion. A dozen years before, the frightful
spread of the cholera, which had once again
wrought havoc, woke the whole world to new ter-
ror. Some one of uneasy mind who found diver-
sion in obscure comparisons, noted from the rec-
ords of the disease that its moving showed the same
progress in a given direction as a man's walking.
A hint was sufficient for the public who eagerly
seized the idea that the Wandering Jew had, from
the first recorded appearance of the cholera, been
the fated carrier of that dreaded pestilence. The
idea seemed to be a dramatic inspiration and had
prehensile grasp. Great as had been the success
of the Mysteries of Paris, that of The Wandering
Jew surpassed it, and for half a century the new
novel kept vividly before its readers the old tra-
dition, and so brought it down to the present.

THE WANDERING JEW 117

We may now begin to ask ourselves who and
where in this great deception was the impostor.
Who was the guilty one? And at first glance we
are inclined to say "There is none! Whatever the
error, mistake, deception, or false conclusion, there
has been no direct guilt." This is to presuppose
that guilt is of conscious premeditation ; and neither
intention of evil nor consciousness of guilt is ap-
parent. In legal phrase the mens rea is lacking.

It is a purely metaplrysical speculation whether
guilt is a necessaiy element of imposition. One is
an intellectual experience, the other is an ethical
problem ; and if we are content to deal with respon-
sibility for another's misdoing, the question of the
degree of blameworthiness is sufficient. Let us try
a process of exclusions. The complete list of those
who had a part in the misunderstanding regarding
the myth of the Wandering Jew, leaving out the
ostensible fictionists, were:

The Abbot of St. Albans, the Archbishop of
Armenia, the interpreter, the Archbishop's servant,
the monks or laybrothers who singly or in general
conversed with any of the above; and finally Mat-
thew Paris who recorded the story in its various
phases. Of these we must except from all blame
both the Abbot of St. Albans and the Archbishop
of Armenia, both of whom were good grave men
of high character and to each of whom had been en-
trusted matters of the highest concern. The in-
terpreter seems to have only fulfilled his office with

118 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

exactitude; if in any way or part he used his op-
portunity to impose on the ignorance of the host
or the guest there is no record, no suggestion of it.
Matthew Paris was a man of such keenness of
mind, of such observation and of such critical in-
sight, that even to-day, after a lapse of over five
hundred years, and the withstanding of all the tests
of a new intellectual world which included such in-
ventions as printing and photography, he is looked
upon as one of the ablest of chroniclers. More-
over he put no new matter nor comments of his
own into the wonderful and startling narratives
which he was called on to record. He even hints at
or infers his own doubt as to the statements made.
The monks, servants and others mentioned gen-
erally, were merely credulous, simple people of the
time, with reverence for any story regarding the
Via Dolorosa, and respect or awe for those in high
places.

There remains but the servant of the foreign
Archbishop. It is to him that we must look for
any outrage on our normal beliefs. He was mani-
festly a person of individually small importance —
even Matthew Paris whose trained work it was to
record with exactness, and whose duty it therefore
was to sustain or buttress main facts, did not think
it necessary or worth while to mention his name.
He had in himself none of the dignity, honour,
weight, learning or position of the noble of the
Church who was the Abbot's guest. He was after

THE WANDERING JEW 119

all but a personal servant; probably one of readi-
ness and expediency with a quick imagination and
a glib tongue. One who could wriggle through a
difficult position, defend himself with ready ac-
quiescence, gain his ends of securing his master's
ease, and find all necessary doors open through the
bonhommie of his fellow servitors. Such an one
accustomed to the exigencies of foreign travel, must
have picked up many quaint conceits, legends and
japes, and was doubtless a persona grata liked and
looked up to by persons of his own class, sanctified
to some little extent by the reflected glory of his
master's great position. It is more than likely that
he had been the recipient of many confidences re-
garding legend and conjecture concerning sacred
matters, and that any such legend as he spoke of
would have been imparted under conditions favour-
able to his own comfort. After the manner of his
kind his stories doubtless lost nothing in the telling
and gained considerably in the re-telling. Even
in the short record of Matthew Paris, there is evi-
dence of this in the way in which, after the strik-
ing story of Cartaphilus has been told, he returns
to the matter again, adding picturesque and incon-
clusive details of the manner of the centennial re-
newal of the wanderer's youth. The simplest
analysis here will show the falsity of the story;
what the great logician Archbishop Whately al-
ways insisted on — "internal evidence" — is dead
against the Armenian valet, courier, or servitor.

120 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

He gave circumstantial account of the periodic
illness, loss of memory, and recovery of youth on
the part of Cartaphilus; but there is no hint of
how he came to know it, and Cartaphilus could not
have told him, nor anybody else. We may, I think,
take it for granted that no other mere mortal was
present, for, had any other human being been there,
all the quacksalvers of a thousand miles around
would have moved heaven and earth to get infor-
mation of what was going on, since in mediaeval
days there was nearly as much competition in the
world of charlatanism as there is to-day in the
world of sport. The Armenian was much too
handy a man at such a crisis to be found out, so we
may give him the benefit of the doubt and at once
credit him with invention. It is hard to under-
stand — or even to believe without understanding —
that so mighty a legend and one so tenacious of life,
arose and grew from such a beginning. And yet
it is in accord with the irony of nature that one
who has unintentionally and unwittingly achieved
a publicity which would dwarf the malign reputa-
tion of Herostratus should have his name unre-
corded.

IV. JOHN LAW

JOHN LAW

THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME AND ITS ANTECEDENTS

THE great "Mississippi Scheme" which
wrought havoc on the French in 1720 is
the central and turning point in the his-
tory of John Law, late of Lauriston, Controller-
General of Finance in France. His father, Wil-
liam Law (grand nephew of James Law, Arch-
bishop of Glasgow) was a goldsmith in that city.

As in the seventeenth century the goldsmiths
were also the bankers and moneylenders of the
community, a successful goldsmith might be looked
on as on the highroad to great fortune. To Wil-
liam Law in 1671 was born his first son John, who
had considerable natural talent in the way of math-
ematics — and a nature which was such as to nullify
their use. As a youth he showed proficiency in
arithmetic and algebra, but as he was also in those
early days riotous and dissipated, we may fairly
come to the conclusion that he did not use his nat-
ural powers to their best advantage. He was al-
ready a gambler of a marked kind. Before he
was of age he was already in debt and was squan-
dering his patrimony. He sold the estate of
Lauriston which his thrifty father had acquired,

123

124 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

and gave himself over to a life of so-called pleasure.
His mother, who had family ambitions, bought the
estate so that it might remain in the family of its
new possessors. He removed himself to London
where within a couple of years he was sentenced to
death for murder — not a vulgar premeditated mur-
der for gain, but the unhappy result of a duel
wherein he had killed his opponent, a boon com-
panion, one Austin who had acquired the soubriquet
of "Beau" Austin. Through social influence the
death penalty was commuted for imprisonment,
and the crime only regarded as manslaughter. He
had however to deal with the relatives of the dead
man who were naturally vindictive. One of them
entered an appeal against the commutation of the
sentence. Law, with the characteristic prudence
of his time and nationality, did not wait for the
leisurely settlement of the legal process, but es-
caped to the continent where he remained for some
years sojourning in various places. Being nat-
urally clever and daring he seems to have generally
fallen on his feet. Whilst in Holland he became
secretary to an important official in the diplomatic
world, from which service he drifted into an em-
ployment with the Bank of Amsterdam. Here the
natural bent of his mind found expression. Bank-
ing in some of its forms is gambling, and as he was
both banker and gambler — one by inherited tend-
ency and the other by personal disposition — he be-
gan to find his vogue, addressing himself seriously

JOHN LAW

JOHN LAW 125

to the intricacies and possibilities of the profession
of banking. He was back in Scotland in 1701 (a
risky venture on his part for his felony had not been
"purged") and published a pamphlet, "Proposals
and Reasons for constituting a Council of Trade in
Scotland/' This he followed up after some years,
with another pamphlet, "Money and Trade con-
sidered, with a proposal for supplying the Nation
with Money 3 ; and in the same year (1709) he pro-
pounded to the Scotch Parliament a scheme for a
State Bank on the security of land — a venture
which on being tried speedily collapsed. This,
like other schemes of that period, was based on the
issue and use of paper money.

In the meantime, and for five or six years after-
wards, he was travelling variously throughout
Europe, occupying himself with formulating suc-
cessive schemes of finance, and in gambling — a
process in which he, being both skilled and lucky,
amassed a sum of over a hundred thousand pounds.
He had varying fortunes, however, and was ex-
pelled from several cities. He was not without be-
lievers in his powers. Amongst them was the Earl
of Stair, then Ambassador to France, who allured
by his specious methods of finance, suggested to
the Earl of Stanhope that he might be useful in
devising a scheme for paying off the British Na-
tional Debt. After the death of Louis XIV, in
1715, he suggested to the Duke of Orleans, the
Regent for the young King (Louis XV), the for-

126 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

mation of a State Bank. The Regent favoured
the idea, but his advisers were against it; it was,
however, agreed that Law might found a bank
with power to issue notes and accept deposits.
This was done by Letters Patent and the Banque
Generate came into existence in 1710, and was an
immediate success. Its principle was to issue
paper money which was to be repayable by coin.
Its paper rose to a premium in 1716; in 1717 there
was a decree that it was to be accepted in the pay-
ment of taxes. This created a new form of cheap
money, with the result that there was a great and
sudden extension of industry and trade. From
this rose the idea of a new enterprise — The Missis-
sippi Company — which was to outvie the success
of the East India Company incorporated by Char-
ter in 1600 under the title of "The Governor
and Company of the Merchants of London trading
to the East Indies," which after periods of doubt-
ful fortune, and having become consolidated with
its rival "The General East India Company;" —
partially in 1702, and completely in 1708, under the
somewhat elephantine name of "The United Com-
pany of Merchants of England trading to the East
Indies" — was now a vast organization of national
importance. To the new French Company for ex-
ploiting the Mississippi Valley was made over
Louisiana (which then included what were after-
wards the States of Ohio and Missouri) . The De-
cree of Incorporation was issued in 1717. The

JOHN LAW 127

Parliament at Paris presently grew jealous of such
a concession having been given to a foreigner ; and
the next year a rumour went about that Parliament
was about to have him arrested, tried, and hanged.
The Regent met the parliamentary resistance by
making (1718) the Banque Generate into the
Banque Royale — the King guaranteeing the notes.
Law was made Director General; but he was un-
able to prevent the Regent from increasing the
issue of paper money, by which means he managed
to satisfy dishonestly his own extravagance. It
was a fiscal principle of the time that the State ac-
countants did not go behind the King's receipt —
the acquit de comptant as it was called.

The Western Company was enlarged in 1718 by
a grant of a monopoly of tobacco, and of the
rights of trading ships and merchandise of the
Company of Senegal. In 1719, the Banque
Royale absorbed the rights of the East India and
China Companies, and then assumed the all-em-
bracing title of Compagnie des Indes. The next
year it took in the African Company; and so
through that the whole of the non-European trade
of France. In 1719, the management of the Mint
was handed over to Law's Company; and he was
thus enabled to manipulate the coinage. In the
same year he had undertaken to pay off the French
National Debt, and so become the sole creditor of
the Nation. He already exercised the functions of
Receiver General and had revenue-farming abol-

128 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

ished in its favour. He now controlled the collec-
tion and disposal of the whole of the State tax-
ation. At this stage of his adventure, Law seemed
a good fiscal administrator. He repealed or re-
duced pressing taxes on useful commodities, and
reduced the price of necessaries by forty per cent,
so that the peasants could increase the value of their
holdings and their crops without fear of coming
later into the remorseless grip of the tax-farmer
under the infamous metayer system. Free-trade
was in the Provinces practically established. This,
so far as it went, was all Law's doing. Turgot,
who later got credit for what had been done, only
carried out what the Scotch financier had planned.

Law had promised high dividends to the specu-
lators in his scheme, and had so far paid them; so
it was no wonder that "The System" raised its
head again. In 1719-20, all France seemed to
flock to Paris to such a degree and with such unan-
imity of purpose, that it was difficult to obtain room
to go on with the necessary work of the Mississippi
Scheme. In such matters, resting on human greed
which throws all prudence to the winds, the pressure
is always towards the centre; and the narrow street
of Quin cam poix became a seething mass, day and
night, of speculators in a hurry to buy shares.
The time for trying to sell them had not yet ar-
rived.

Naturally such a locality rose in value, and as
demand emphasises paucity of space, extraordinary

JOHN LAW 129

prices ruled. Even a small share in the lucky
street, where fortunes could be made in an hour,
rose to fabulous value. Houses formerly letting
for forty pounds a year now fetched eight hundred
pounds per month. And no wonder, when shares
of the face value of five hundred livres sold for ten
thousand! When there is such an overwhelming
desire to buy, then is the opportunity for sellers to
realise, and the time for such speculation on the one
side, and for such commerce on the other, is nat-
urally short and the need pressing.

At the beginning of 1720 everything seemed to
be increasing in a sort of geometric ratio. After a
dividend of forty per cent, had been declared,
shares of five hundred value rose to eighteen thou-
sand. Greed, and the opportunity for satisfying
its craving, turned the heads of ordinarily sensible
people. The whole world seemed mad. It ap-
peared right enough that the financial wonder-
worker who had created such a state of things
should be loaded with additional honours. It was
only scriptural that he who had already multiplied
his talents should be entrusted with more. There
was universal rejoicing when John Law — exiled
foreigner and condemned murderer — was ap-
pointed, in January, 1720, Controller-General of
the whole finances of France. Naturally enough,
even the hard head of the canny Scot began to
manifest symptoms of giving way in the shape of
becoming exalte. And naturally enough his ene-

130 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

mies — financial, political and racial — did not
lose the opportunities afforded them of taking ad-
vantage of it. Tongues began to wag, and all
sorts of rumours, some of them reconcilable with
common sense and easily credible, others out-
rageous, began to go about. Lord Stair reported
that Law had boasted that he would raise France
on the ruins of England and Holland, to a
greater height than she had ever reached; that he
could crush the East India Company and even de-
stroy British trade and credit when he chose.
Stair resented this, and he and Law from being
close friends became enemies. To appease the in-
censed and at present all-powerful Law, the pow-
ers that were recalled Lord Stair.

On 23 February 1720, the Compagnie des Indes
and the Banque Royale were united, thus linking
the ends of the financial chain. "The System"
was now complete.

When Aladdin set the Genius, who had hitherto
worked so willingly, the final task of hanging a
roc's egg in the centre of the newly-created palace,
he brought the whole structure tumbling about his
ears. So it was with John Law and the egregious
Mississippi Scheme. His idea was complete and
perfect. But the high sun when it reaches its
meridianal splendour begins from that instant its
downward course.

The reaction was not long in manifesting itself.
Usually in such matters there is a pause before the

JOHN LAW 131

great driving-wheels reverse their motion, and the
backward motion, beginning slowly, gathers way
as it progresses. But in this case human intelli-
gence and not soulless machinery was the propul-
sive force of reaction. The speculators had begun
to work before the onward movement had come to
an end or even begun to slacken. They were
loaded up with a vast amount of stocks whose
value, even if there had been money to redeem
them, was severely limited, whereas they had pur-
chased at prices varying between the first rise above
nominal value and that reached by the last desper-
ate speculator. It is not wise to hold such inflated
stock too long, and in a crisis sailing-master Wis-
dom orders Quarter-master Caution to take a trick
at the helm. When the bare idea of unification of
financial interests was mooted, the wise holders of
stock commenced to unload. When this move-
ment began its progress was rapid — so long as
there was anything to be moved. The first class
to feel it were the bankers. The specie ran out like
the pent-up water from a burst reservoir, till in an
incredibly short time there was not sufficient re-
maining to afford the money-change needed in
daily life. The advisers and officials of the State,
seriously alarmed, began at once to take strong
measures supported by royal decrees. Then as
ruin began to stare the whole nation in the face
more and more with every hour, desperate expedi-
ents were resorted to. The value of the currency

132 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

was made by every stratagem, dishonest trick, and
unscrupulous exercise of power, to fluctuate so that
such differences or margins as arose might be
grasped forthwith for national use. Payments in
bullion, except for very small amounts, were for-
bidden. The possession of anything over five hun-
dred livres in specie was deemed an offence punish-
able by confiscation, partial or wholesale, and by
fine. Domiciliary visits were paid to seek evidence
of offence and to enforce the new laws, and in-
formers in this connection were well paid.

Then began a war, between public oppression
and individual trickery, to defend acquired rights
and evade unjust demands. The holders of paper
money, unable to realise in specie, tried to protect
themselves by purchasing goods of intrinsic value.
Precious metals, jewels, and such like were bought
in such quantities that the supplies diminished and
the prices grew, until to avoid immediate ruin, such
purchases were proclaimed illegal and prohibited.
Then ordinary commodities of lesser values were
tried as means of barter, till their prices too rose to
such an extent that trade was paralysed. In order
to meet the growing danger a still more desperate
expedient was resorted to. A decree was issued
the effect of which would be to reduce — grad-
ually it was hoped — the obligation of bank notes
to one-half their nominal value. This completed
the panic, for here was a position which could not
be guarded against by any prudence or wisdom.

JOHN LAW 133

No one could henceforth by any possibility be
financially safe. The speculators who had already
realised were alone safe. Bona fide investors, if
not already overwhelmed by disaster, saw the tide
of ruin rising rapidly around them. Nothing
within the power of the state could now be done to
check or even lessen the state of panic; not even
the reversal of the late decree in ten days after its
issue. To make matters still worse the Banque
at this very time suspended payment. Probably
in a wild endeavour to do something which would
avert odium from itself by saddling the responsi-
bility on someone else, the Government procured
the dismissal of Law from the Controller-Gen-
eralship of Finance. However — strange to say —
he was very soon appointed by the Regent as In-
tendant-General of Commerce and Director of the
ruined bank. The much-vaunted, idolised, and be-
lieved-in "System" had now fallen hopelessly and
was ruined forever. Law was everywhere at-
tacked and insulted with such unmitigated rancour
that he had to leave the country. He had invested
the bulk of the great fortune which he had by now
acquired, in estates in France; and these together
with everything else that he had were now con-
fiscated.

At the end of the same year, 1720, whilst he was
at Brussels he was asked by the command of the
Czar (Peter) , to administer the finances of Russia,
but declined. After this episode, grateful to a

134 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

broken man, he spent a couple of years wandering
about Italy and Germany and probably gaining a
fluctuating income through gambling. Next he
was to be found in Copenhagen where he had
sought sanctuary from his creditors. Next year
there was an outward change in his status, when he
went to England, on a ship of war, at the invita-
tion of the Government. There he was presented
to George I. Somewhat to his chagrin he was de-
nounced in the House of Lords as a Catholic — (he
had abjured his old belief of Protestantism before
accepting the high office of Controller-General of
Finances in 1720) — and an adherent of the Pre-
tender. He pleaded in the King's Bench the
Royal pardon for the murder of Beau Austin which
had been sent to him in 1719. He spent the suc-
ceeding few years in England whence he corre-
sponded with the Duke of Orleans. He expected
to be recalled to France but his hope was never
realised. He wished to go to the Continent but
was practically a prisoner in England, fearing to
leave it lest he should be arrested by his creditors,
amongst whom was the new French East India
Company which had been reconstructed on the ruins
of the old. In 1725 Sir Robert Walpole, then
Prime Minister, asked Lord Townshend, the Sec-
retary of State, to give Law a King's commission
of some sort, so that such might serve for his pro-
tection. In the same year he went to Italy. He
died in Venice in 1729, in what, compared with his

JOHN LAW 135

former state, was poverty. To the last he was a
gambler, always ready to take long risks for a pros-
pect, however remote, of large gain. A story is
told that in his last years he wagered his last thou-
sand pounds to a shilling (20,000 to 1) against the
throwing of double sixes six consecutive times.
The law of chances was with him and naturally he
won. He renewed his wager but the authorities
would not allow the further gamble to take place.

John Law married, quite early in life, the
daughter of the Earl of Banbury and widow of
Mr. Seignior. His widow died in 174>7. Some of
the members of his family were not undistin-
guished; his son died a Colonel in the Austrian
service; and one of his nephews became Comte de
Lauriston and rose to be a General in the French
army and Aide-de-Camp to the first Napoleon.
He was made a Marshal of France by Louis
XVIII.

John Law was a handsome and distinguished-
looking man, blonde, with small dark grey eyes
and fresh complexion. He made an agreeable im-
pression on strangers. Saint-Simon, the social
historian, gave him a good character: "innocent of
greed and knavery, a mild good man whom for-
tune had not spoilt." Others of his time regarded
him as a pioneer of modern statesmanship.

How is it then that such a man must be set down
an impostor? In historical perspective as an im-
postor he must be regarded, though not as such in

136 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

the narrowest view. The answer is that his very
prominence sits amongst his judges. Lesser men,
and greater men of lesser position, might well stand
excused in matters wherein he is accorded condem-
nation.

"That in the Captain's but a choleric word
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy."

If, when a man plays a game wherein life and
death and the fortunes of many thousands are in-
volved, it behoves him to be at least careful, much
greater is his responsibility where the prosperity
and happiness of nations are at stake. Had Law
merely started new theories of finance, and had
they gone wrong, he might well claim, and be ac-
corded, excuse. But his were inventions of what,
in modern slang, is called "get-rich-quick" prin-
ciples. Not only did Law not enrich human life —
with one exception, that of enlarging the currency
in use — or add to the sum total of human well-be-
ing and happiness; he even neglected to show that
forethought and consideration for others which in
all honour ought to be exercised by the deviser and
controller of great risks. He was a gambler, and
a gambler only. He merely put into the pockets
of some persons that which he had taken out of the
pockets of others; and in doing so showed no con-
sideration for the poor, the thrifty, the needy —
for any of those whose contentment and happiness
depend on such as are in high places and dowered

JOHN LAW 137

in some way with productive powers. The soulless
uneducated churl who does an honest day's work
does more for humanity than the genius who merely
shifts about the already garnered wealth of ages.
John Law posed as a benefactor and accepted all
the benefits that accrued to him from the praises of
those who followed in his wake and gleaned the
rich wastage of his empire-moving theories and
schemes. Financiers of Law's type no more bene-
fit a country or enrich a people than do the hordes
of wasters and "tape"-betting men who prey on
labour as locusts do on the crops. If they wish not
to do unnecessary harm — which is putting their
duty at the lowest possible estimate — they should at
least try to avoid repeating the errors which have
wrecked others. A brief glance at the wreckage
which lay well within the Scotch gambler's vision,
will show how he shut his eyes deliberately not only
to facts, but to the many correlations of cause and
effect. Before his Mississippi Scheme was for-
mulated, there had been experience of banking en-
terprises, of schemes for mercantile combination
and for the exploitation of capital, of adventurous
dealings in the developments of countries new and
more or less savage, East and West and South.

The following list will typify. Of all these John
Law had knowledge sufficient to judge of diffi-
culties to be encountered in the early stages, of
dangers not only incidental to the things them-
selves, but based deep in human nature.

138 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

The East India Company founded in 1600
The Bank of England founded in 1694
The Africa Company founded in 1695
The Darien Company founded in 1695

A glance at each of these, all of which were within
the scope and knowledge of Law, their aims, for-
mation and development, up to the time spoken of,
can hardly fail to be illuminative. The six-
teenth century had been an age of adventure
and discovery ; the seventeenth of the foundation of
great commercial enterprise, of conception of ideas,
of the constructive beginnings of things. The time
for development had come with the eighteenth; and
now care and forethought, prudence and resource,
were the preparations for success.

The East India Company was in reality the
pioneer of corporate trading, and as for nearly a
hundred years it was in a measure alone in its scale
of magnitude, its experiences could well serve as
exemplar, guide, and danger signal. It was based
on that surest of all undertakings, natural growth.
It came into existence because it was wanted, and
from no other cause. Its very name, its modest
capital, its self-protective purpose make for under-
standing.

In its Charter of Incorporation its purpose was
indicated in the name: "The Governor and Com-
pany of Merchants of London trading to the East
Indies." Its capital was £70,000, which though

JOHN LAW 139

a large sum for those days, was, according to our
modern lights, an almost ridiculously small sum for
the object then before it, and to which it ultimately
attained. The time was ripe for just such an un-
dertaking.

The Peace of Vervins (1598) which left both
France and Spain free to look after their domestic
concerns, was immediately followed by the Edict of
Nantes (1599) which gave religious liberty to
France, and such a new freedom is always followed
by national expansion. By this time Spain — the
explorer or conqueror — and Holland — the patient
organiser — held Eastern commerce in their hands.
England had been gradually making a commerce
of her own in the Indies, and all that was required
was an official acknowledgment, so that the thunder
of her guns should, when required, follow the
creaking of her cordage. From the story of this
great enterprise, through its first twenty-five years,
could be drawn the lesson of such schemes as Law
was now formulating. Though it had succeeded,
in spite of Dutch and Portuguese opposition, in
establishing "factories" when the historic massacre
by the Dutch at Amboyna in the Molucca Islands,
took place in 1725, the Eastern Company seemed
near its dissolution. It was not till the establish-
ment of the Hooghly factory in 1742 that things
began to look up. After that, fortune favoured
the Company more than she had appeared likely
to do at the start. The marriage of Charles II to

140 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Catherine of Braganza in 1661 brought progress
in its train. Catherine's dower, which included
Bombay and so put a part of Portugal's later pos-
sessions in British keeping, greatly stimulated the
East India Company which thenceforth was able
to weather the storms that threatened or assailed.
The privilege of making war on its own account,
conceded by Charles II, gave the Company a na-
tional importance which was destined to consolidate
its interests with those of England itself. So
strong did it become that before the end of the
eighteenth century it was able to resist the attack on
its charter made by a powerful and progressive
rival, the "New Company." The rivals, after a few
years of pourparlers and tentative efforts, were
united in 1708; and thenceforth the amalgamation,
under the title "The United Company of Mer-
chants of England trading to the East Indies," was
practically unassailable on its own account. It was
additionally safe in that it had the protection of the
great Whig Party under Godolphin. The capital
of the Company, now enlarged to £3,200,000, was
lent to the Government at five per cent, interest and
was finally merged in the National Funds. The
history of the Company, after 1717 does not belong
here, as it is only considered as showing that John
Law had the experience of an earlier Company
similar to his own to guide him in its management
if he had chosen to avail himself of it.

The Bank of England was, strangely enough,

JOHN LAW 141

the project of a Scotchman, William Paterson.
The plan was submitted to Government in 1691
but was not carried into existence for three years.
It was purely a business concern, brought into
effective existence through the needs of commerce,
the opportunity afforded being the need of the
State and the concern of the statesman. It had a
capital at first of over £1,200,000, which was
loaned to the nation on the security of the taxes
when the Charter was signed, there being certain
safeguards against the possibility of political mis-
use. The Controlling Board was to have twenty-
five members who were to be elected annually by
the stockholders with a substantial qualification.
There were at this time in England private banks ;
but this was an effort to formulate the banking
rights, duties, and powers of capital under the a?gis
of the State itself. But even so sound a venture,
enormously popular from the very first and with
the whole might of the nation behind it, had its
own difficulties to encounter. Its instantaneous
success was an incentive to other adventurers; and
the co-operation with government which it made
manifest created jealousy with private persons and
commercial concerns. Within two years its very
existence was threatened, first by the individual
hostility of those in the bullion trade, who already
acted as bankers, and then by a rival concern in-
corporated under strong political support. This
was the National Land Bank whose purpose was to

142 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

use the security of real estate as a guarantee for
the paper money which it issued for convenient
usage. Strong as the Bank of England was by
its nature, its popularity, and its support, it was
in actual danger until the rival which had never
"caught on" — to use an apposite Americanism —
actually and almost instantaneously collapsed.

The safety thus temporarily obtained was pur-
chased at the cost to the Government of a further
loan of two million sterling — with the value to the
contra of an alliance thus begun with the Whig
ministry.

A further danger came from the mad and mad-
dening South Sea Scheme five years later; but
from which it was happily saved solely through the
greater cupidity and daring of the newer company.

The Darien Company, which followed hard on
the heels of The African Company, was formed in
1695, by Paterson; on the base of An Act of the
Scottish Parliament for the purpose of making an
opening for Scottish capital after the manner of
the East India Company by which English enter-
prise had already so largely benefited. Its career
was of such short duration and its failure so com-
plete that there was little difficulty in understanding
the causes of its collapse. It might serve for a
pendant of Lamb's criticism of the meat that was
"ill fed and ill killed, ill kept and ill cooked." The
Company was started to utilise, in addition to ex-
ploiting new lands, the waste of time, energy and

JOHN LAW 143

capital, between West and East; and yet it was not
till the first trading fleet was sailing that its ob-
jective was made known to the adventurers. Its
ideas of trading were those of a burlesque, and its
materials of barter with tropical savages on the
criminal side of the ludicrous — bibles, heavy
woollen stuffs and periwigs! Naturally a couple
of years finished its working existence and "The
rest is silence." And yet at the inception of the
scheme two great nations vied with one another for
its control.

There are those who may say that John Law was
not an impostor, but a great financier who made a
mistake. Financiers must not make mistakes — or
else they must be classed amongst the impostors;
for they deal with the goods and prospects of
others as well as their own. Law was simply a
gambler on a great scale. He led a nation,
through its units, to believe that the following of
his ideas would lead to success. Financial schemes
without good ideas and practical working to carry
them out are deceptive and destructive. The Mis-
sissippi Scheme is a case in point. If the original
intention had been carried out in its entirety — which
involved vast pioneering and executive action of
present and future generations, and an almost ab-
solute foregoing of immediate benefits — the result
would have been of immense service to the successors
in title of the original ventures. The assessable
value of the real estate conveyed under the Mis-

144 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

sissippi Scheme to-day equals more than a third of
the present gigantic National Debt of France,
swollen though the latter is by the Napoleonic wars,
the war with Austria, the cost and indemnity of the
war with Germany, and, in addition, by the long
wars with England and Russia.

If human beings had been angels, content with
the prospect of gains in the distant future. Law's
schemes might have succeeded. As it was, he,
working for his own purposes with an imperfect
humanity, can only be judged by results.

V. WITCHCRAFT AND
CLAIRVOYANCE

WITCHCRAFT AND CLAIRVOYANCE

A. THE PERIOD

FOR convenience, the masculine offender is
in demonology classed under the female
designation. According to Michelet and
other authorities there were ten thousand alleged
witches for each alleged wizard! and anyhow there
is little etiquette as to the precedence of ladies in
criminal matters.

The first English Statute dealing directly with
witches appears to be the thirty-third of Henry
VIII (1541) which brought into the list of fel-
onies persons "devising or practising conjurations,
witchcraftes, sorcerie or inchantments or the dig-
ging up of corpses," and depriving such of the
benefit of clergy. It was however repealed by
I Edward VI Cap. 12, and again by I Mary (in
its first section.). Queen Elizabeth, however,
passed another Act (5 Elizabeth Cap. 16) prac-
tically repeating that of her father, which had been
in abeyance for more than thirty years. The Stat-
ute of Elizabeth is exceedingly interesting in that
it states the condition of the law at that time. The
opening words leave no misunderstanding :

"Whereas at this day there is no ordinary nor condigne pun-
ishment provided against the wicked offences of conjurations

147

148 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

or invocations of evil spirits, or of sorceries, inchantments,
charmes or witchcraftes, which be practised to the obstruction
of the persons and goods of the Queene's subjects, or for
other lewd purposes. Be it enacted that if any person or
persons after the first day of June next coming, shall use prac-
tice, or exercise any invocations, or conjurations, of evill or
wicked spirits, to or for any intent or purpose, or else if any
person or persons after the said first day of June shal use,
practice or exercise any witchcraft, enchantment, charme or
sorcerie, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or de-
stroied, that then as well every such offendour or offendours
in invocations, or conjurations, as is aforesayde, their aydours
and counsellors, as also everie such oifendour or offendours in
that Witchcrafte, enchantment, charme or sorcerie whereby the
death of any person doth ensue, their ayders and counsellors,
being of eyther of the sayde offences lawfully convicted and
attainted, shall suffer paines of death, as a felon or felons,
and shall lose the privilege and benefit of Clergy and sanctu-
ary," &c.

In this act lesser penalties are imposed for using
any form of witchcraft or sorcery, for inducing to
any persons harm, or to "provoke any person to
unlawfull love or to hurt or destroy any person in
his or her bodye, member or goods," or for the dis-
covery or recovery of treasure. From that time
down to the first quarter of the eighteenth century,
when the law practically died out, witchcraft had
its place in the category of legal offences. The
law was finally repealed by an Act in the tenth year
of George II. The sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies were the time of witch-fever, and in that
period, especially in its earlier days when the belief

WITCHCRAFT 149

had become epidemic, it was ruthless and destruc-
tive. It is said that in Genoa five hundred persons
were burned within three months in the year 1515,
and a thousand in the diocese of Como in a year.
Round numbers in such matters are to be distrusted,
as we find they seldom bear investigation ; but there
is little doubt that in France and Germany vast
numbers suffered and perished. Even in more pro-
saic and less emotional England there were many
thousands of judicial murders in this wise. It is
asserted that within two centuries they totalled
thirty thousand.

It is startling to find such a weird and impossible
credulity actually rooted in the Statute book of
one's own country, and that there are records of
judges charging juries to convict. Sir Matthew
Hale, a great lawyer, a judge of the Common Pleas
in 1654, and Lord Chief Justice in 1671, was a firm
believer in witchcraft. He was a grave and pious
man, and all his life was an ardent student of the-
ology as well as of law. And yet in 1664 he sen-
tenced women to be burned as witches. In 1716
a mother and daughter — the latter only nine years
of age — were hanged in Huntingdon. In Scot-
land the last case of a woman being condemned as
a witch occurred at Dornoch in 1722.

It is no easy task in these days, which are ration-
alistic, iconoclastic and enquiring, to understand
how the commonalty not only believed in witchcraft
but acted on that belief. Probably the most tol-

150 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

erant view we can take, is that both reason and
enquiry are essential and rudimentary principles of
human nature. Every person of normal faculties
likes to know and understand the reasons of things ;
and inquisitiveness is not posterior to the period of
maternal alimentation. If we seek for a cause we
are bound to find one — even if it be wrong. Omne
ignotum pro magnifico has a wide if not always a
generous meaning; and when fear is founded on,
if not inspired by ignorance, that unthinking feroc-
ity which is one of our birthrights from Adam is
apt to carry us further than we ever meant to go.
In an age more clear-seeing than our own and less
selfish we shall not think so poorly of primitive
emotions as we are at present apt to. On the con-
trary we shall begin to understand that in times
when primitivity holds sway, we are most in touch
with the loftiest things we are capable of under-
standing, and our judgment, being complex, is
most exact. Indeed in this branch of the subject
persons used to call to aid a special exercise of our
natural forces — the aesthetic. When witchcraft was
a belief, the common idea was that that noxious
power was almost entirely held by the old and ugly.
The young, fresh, and beautiful, were seldom ac-
cepted as witches save by the novelty-loving few
or those of sensual nature. This was perhaps for-
tunate — if the keeping down of the population in
this wise was necessary; it is easier as well as safer
to murder the uncomely than those of greater

WITCHCRAFT 151

charm. In any case there was no compunction
about obliterating the former class. The general
feeling was much the same as that in our own time
which in sporting circles calls for the destruction
of vermin.

It will thus be seen that the profession of witch-
craft, if occasionally lucrative, was nevertheless
always accompanied with danger and execration.
This was natural enough since the belief which made
witchcraft dangerous was based on fear. It is not
too much to say that in every case, professed witch-
craft was an expression of fraudulent intent.
Such pity, therefore, as the subject allows of must
be confined to the guiltless victims who, despite
blameless life, were tried by passion, judged by
frenzy, and executed by remorseless desperation.
There could be no such thing as quantitative analy-
sis of guilt with regard to the practice of witch-
craft: any kind of playing with the subject was
a proof of some kind of wrongful intent, and was
to be judged with Draconian severity. Doubtless
it was a very simple way of dealing with evils, much
resembling the medical philosophy of the Chinese.
The whole logic of it can be reduced to a sorites.
Any change from the normal is the work of
the devil — or a devil as the case may be. Find
out the normal residence of that especial devil
— which is in some human being. Destroy the
devil's dwelling. You get rid of the devil. It
is pure savagery of the most primitive kind. And

152 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

it is capable of expansion, for logic is a fertile plant,
and when its premises are wrong it has the fecun-
dity of a weed. 'Before even a savage can have
time to breathe, his logic is piling so fast on him
that he is smothered. If a human being is a devil
then the club which destroys him or her is an incar-
nation of good, and so a god to be worshipped in
some form — or at any rate to be regarded with
esteem, like a sword, or a legal wig, or a steth-
oscope, or a paint-brush, or a shovel, or a compass,
or a drinking-vessel, or a pen. If all the neces-
sary conditions of life and sanity and comfort were
on so primitive a base, what an easy world it would
be to live in!

One benefit there was in witchcraft, though it
was not recognised officially as such at the time.
It created a new industry — a whole crop of indus-
tries. It is of the nature of belief that it encour-
ages belief — not always of exactly the same kind —
but of some form which intelligence can turn into
profit. We cannot find any good in the new in-
dustry — grapes do not grow on thorns nor figs on
thistles. The sum of human happiness was in no
sense augmented ; but at least a good deal of money
or money's worth changed hands; which, after all,
is as much as most of the great financiers can point
to as the result of long and strenuous success. In
the organisation of this form of crime there were
many classes, of varying risks and of benefits in
inverse ratio to them. For the ordinary rule of

WITCHCRAFT 153

finance holds even here: large interest means bad
security. First there were the adventurers them-
selves who took the great risks of life and its
collaterals — esteem, happiness, &c. The money ob-
tained by this class was usually secured by fraudu-
lent sales of worthless goods or by the simple old
financial device of blackmail. Then there were
those who were in reality merely parasites on the
pleasing calling — those timorous souls who let " 'I
dare not' wait upon 'I would' like the poor cat i'
the adage." These were altogether in a poorer way
of trade than their bolder brothers and sisters.
They lacked courage, and sometimes even sufficient
malice for the proper doing of their work ; with the
result that success seldom attended them at all, and
never heartily. But at any rate they could not
complain of inadequate punishment; whenever re-
ligious zeal flamed up they were generally promi-
nent victims. They can in reality only be regarded
as specimens of parasitic growth. Then there
came the class known in French criminal circles as
agents provocateurs, whose business was not only
to further ostensible crime but to work up the oppo-
sition against it. Either branch of their art would
probably be inadequate; but by finking their serv-
ices they managed to eke out a livelihood. Lastly
there was the lowest grade of all, the Witch-finder
— a loathly calling, comparable only to the class or
guild of "paraskistae" or "rippers" in the ritual
of the Mummy industry of ancient Egypt.

154 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Of these classes we may I think consider some
choice specimens — so far as we may fittingly inves-
tigate the personnel of a by-gone industry. Of
the main body, that of Wizards and Witches or
those pretending to the cult, let us take Doctor
Dee and Madame Voisin, and Sir Edward Kelley
and Mother Damnable — thus representing the
method of the procession of the unclean animals
from the Ark. Of the class of Witchfinders one
example will probably be as much as we can stand,
and we will naturally take the one who obtained
fame in his calling — namely Matthew Hopkins,
who stands forth like Satan, "by merit raised to that
bad eminence."

B. DOCTOR DEE

EVEN a brief survey of the life of the cele-
brated "Doctor Dee," the so-called "Wiz-
ard" of the sixteenth century, will leave
any honest reader under the impression that in
the perspective of history he was a much maligned
man. If it had not been that now and again he
was led into crooked bye-paths of alleged occult-
ism, his record might have stood out as that of one
of the most accomplished and sincere of the scien-
tists of his time. He was in truth, whatever were
his faults, more sinned against than sinning. If
the English language is not so elastic as some oth-
ers in the matter of meaning of phrases, the same
or a greater effect can be obtained by a careful use
of the various dialects of the British Empire. In
the present case we may, if English lacks, well call
on some of the varieties of Scotch terminology.
The intellectual status of the prime wizard, as he
is held to be in general opinion, can be well indi-
cated by any of the following words or phrases
"wanting," "crank," "a tile off," "a wee bit saft,"
"a bee in his bonnet." Each of these is indicative
of some form of monomania, generally harmless.
If John Dee had not had some great qualities, such

155

156 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

negative weaknesses would have prevented his rep-
utation ever achieving a permanent place in history
of any kind. As it is his place was won by many
accomplished facts. The following is a broad out-
line of his life, which was a long one lasting for
over eighty years.

John Dee was born in 1527, and came of a Welsh
race. A good many years after his start in life
he, after the harmless fashion of those (and other)
times, made out a family tree in which it was shewn
that he was descended from, among other royalties,
Roderick the Great, Prince of Wales. This little
effort of vanity did not, however, change anything.
The world cared then about such things almost as
little as it does now; or, allowing for the weakness
of human beings in the way of their own self-
importance, it might be better to say as it professes
to do now. John Dee was sent to the University
of Cambridge when he was only fifteen years old.
The College chosen for him was St. John's, and
here he showed extraordinary application in his
chosen subject, mathematics. He took his proba-
tionary degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1545, and
was made a Fellow in 1546. In his early years of
College life his work was regulated in a remark-
able way. Out of the twenty-four hours, eighteen
were devoted to study, four to sleep, the remaining
two being set apart for meals and recreation. Lest
this should seem incredible it may be remembered
that three hundred years later, the French Jesuits,

WITCHCRAFT 157

having made exhaustive experiments, arrived at
the conclusion that for mere purposes of health,
without making any allowance for the joy or hap-
piness of life, and treating the body merely as a
machine from which the utmost amount of work
mental and physical could be got without injury,
four hours of sleep per diem sufficed for health and
sanity. And it is only natural that a healthy and
ambitious young man trying to work his way to
success would, or might have been, equally stren-
uous and self-denying. His appointment as Fel-
low of St. John's was one of those made when the
College was founded. That he was skilled in other
branches of learning was shown by the fact that
in the University he was appointed as Under
Reader in Greek. He was daring in the practical
application of science, and during the representa-
tion of one of the comedies of Aristophanes, cre-
ated such a sensation by appearing to fly, that he
began to be credited by his companions with mag-
ical powers. This was probably the beginning of
the sinister reputation which seemed to follow him
all his life afterwards. When once an idea of the
kind has been started even the simplest facts of life
and work seem to gather round it and enlarge it
indefinitely. So far as we can judge after a lapse
of over three hundred years, John Dee was an eager
and ardent seeker after knowledge ; and all through
his life he travelled in the search wherever he was
likely to gain his object. It is a main difficulty of

158 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

following such a record that we have only facts to
follow. We know little or nothing of motives ex-
cept from results, and as in the development of
knowledge the measure of success can only bear
a small ratio to that of endeavour, it is manifest
that we should show a large and tolerant under-
standing of the motives which animate the seeker
for truth. In the course of his long life John Dee
visited many lands, sojourned in many centres of
learning, had relations of common interests as well
as of friendship with many great scholars, and
made as thinker, mathematician, and astronomer,
a reputation far transcending any ephemeral and
purely gaseous publicity arising from the open-
mouthed wonder of the silly folk who are not cap-
able of even trying to understand things beyond
their immediate ken. Wherever he went he seems
to have been in touch with the learned and pro-
gressive men of his time, and always a student.
At various times he was in the Low Countries,
Louvain (from whose University he obtained the
degree of LL.D.), Paris, Wurtemberg, Antwerp,
Presburg, Lorraine, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Bo-
hemia, Cracow, Prague, and Hesse- Cassel. He
even went so far afield as St. Helena. He was
engaged on some great works of more than national
importance. For instance, when in 1582, Pope
Gregory XIII instituted the reform of the Cal-
endar which was adopted by most of the great na-
tions of the world, Dee approved and worked out

WITCHCRAFT 159

his own calculations to an almost similar conclusion,
though the then opposition to him cost England
a delay of over one hundred and seventy years. In
1572 he had proved his excellence as an astronomer
in his valuable work in relation to a newly dis-
covered star (Tycho Brahe's) in Cassiopceia. In
1580 he made a complete geographical and hydro-
graphical map of the Queen's possessions. He
tried — but unhappily in vain — to get Queen Mary
to gather the vast collections of manuscripts and old
books which had been made in the Monasteries
(broken up by Henry VIII) of which the major
part were then to be obtained both easily and
cheaply. He was a Doctor of Laws (which by the
way was his only claim to be called "Doctor" Dee,
the title generally accorded to him) . He was made
a rector in Worcestershire in 1553; and in 1556,
Archbishop Parker gave him ten years' use of the
livings of Upton and Long Leadenham. He was
made Warden of Manchester College in 1595, and
was named by Queen Elizabeth as Chancellor of
St. Paul's. In 1564, he was appointed Dean of
Gloucester, though through his own neglect of his
own interest it was never carried out. The Queen
approved, the Archbishop sealed the deed ; but Dee,
unmindful, overlooked the formality of acceptance
and the gift eventually went elsewhere. Queen
Elizabeth, who consistently believed in and admired
him, wanted to make him a bishop, but he declined
the responsibility. For once the formality at con-

160 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

secration: "Nolo Episcopari" was spoken with
truthful lips. More than once he was despatched
to foreign places to make special report in the
Queen's service. That he did not — always, at all
events — put private interest before public duty is
shown by his refusal to accept two rectories offered
to him by the Queen in 1576, urging as an excuse
that he was unable to find time for the necessary
duties, since he was too busily occupied in making
calculations for the reformation of the Calendar.
He seems to have lived a most proper life, and
was twice married. After a long struggle with
adversity in which — last despair of a scholar — he
had to sell his books, he died very poor, just as he
was preparing to migrate. At his death in 1608
he left behind him no less than seventy-nine works
— nearly one for each year of his life. Just after
the time of the Armada, following on some cor-
respondence with Queen Elizabeth, he had returned
to England after long and adventurous experi-
ences in Poland and elsewhere, during which he had
known what it was to receive the honours and
affronts of communities. He took back with him
the reputation of being a sorcerer, one which he
had never courted and which so rankled in him that
many years afterwards he petitioned James I to
have him tried so that he might clear his character.
If there be any truth whatever in the theory that
men have attendant spirits, bad as well as good,
Dr. Dee's bad spirit took the shape of one who

WITCHCRAFT 161

pretended to occult knowledge, the so-called Sir
Edward Kelley of whom we shall have something to
say later on.

Dee was fifty-four years of age when he met
Sir Edward Kelley who was twenty-eight years
his junior. The two men became friends, and then
the old visionary scholar at once became dominated
by his younger and less scrupulous companion, who
very soon became his partner. From that time
Dee's down-fall — or rather down-slide began. All
the longings after occult belief which he had
hitherto tried to hold in check began not only to
manifest themselves, but to find expression. His
science became merged in alchemy, his astronomical
learning was forced into the service of Astrology.
His belief, which he as a cleric held before him as
a duty, was lost in spiritualism and other forms of
occultism. He began to make use for practical
purposes of his crystal globe and his magic mirror
in which he probably had for long believed secretly.
Kelley practically ruined his reputation by using
for his own purposes the influence which he had
over the old man. His opportunities were in-
creased by the arrival in England of Laski, about
1583. The two scholars had many ideas in com-
mon, and Kelley did not fail, in the furtherance of
his own views, to take advantage of the circum-
stance. He persuaded Dee to go with his new
friend to Poland, in the hope of benefiting
further in his studies in the occult by wider

162 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

experience of foreign centres of learning. They
journeyed to Laskoe near Cracow, where the
weakness of the English scholar became more
evident and his form of madness more de-
veloped. Dee had now a fixed belief in two
ideas which he had hitherto failed to material-
ise — the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life,
both of them dreams held as possible of realisation
to the scientific dreamer in the period of the Renais-
sance. Dee believed at one time that he had got
hold of the Philosopher's Stone, and actually sent
to Queen Elizabeth a piece of gold taken from a
transmuted warming-pan. As it is said in the life
of Dee that he and Kelley had found a quantity
of the Elixir of Life in the ruins of Glastonbury
Abbey, we can easily imagine what part the latter
had in the transaction. It was he, too, who prob-
ably fixed on Glastonbury as the place in which to
search for Elixirs, as that holy spot had already
a reputation of its own in such matters. It has
been held for ages that the staff used by Joseph
of Arimathea took root and blossomed there.
Somehow, whatever the Glastonbury Elixir did, the
Philosopher's Stone did not seem to keep its alleged
properties in the Dee family. John Dee's young
son Arthur, aged eight, tried its efficacy; but with-
out success. Perhaps it was this failure which made
Kelley more exacting, for a couple of years later
in 1589, he told his partner that angels had told
him it was the divine wish that they should have

WITCHCRAFT 163

their wives in common. The sage, who was fond
of his wife — who was a comely woman, whereas
Kelley's was ill favoured and devoid of charms —
naturally demurred at such an utterance even of
occult spirits. Mrs. Dee also objected, with the
result that there were alarums and excursions and
the partnership was rudely dissolved — which is a
proof that though the aged philosopher's mind had
been vitiated by the evil promptings of his wily
companion he had not quite declined to idiocy.

C. LA VOISIN

IN Paris a woman named Des Hayes Voisin,
a widow who had taken up the business of a
midwife, towards the end of the seventeenth
century made herself notorious by the telling of
fortunes. Such at least was the manifest occu-
pation of the worthy lady, and as she did not flaunt
herself unduly, her existence was rather a retired
one. Few who did not seek her services knew of
her existence, fewer still of her residence. The
life of a professor of such mysteries as the doings
of Fate — so-called — is prolonged and sweetened by
seclusion. But there is always an "underground"
way of obtaining information for such as really
desire it; and Madame Voisin, for all her evasive
retirement, was always to be found when wanted —
which means when she herself wanted to be found.
She was certainly a marvellous prophet, within a
certain range of that occult art. Like all clever
people she fixed limitations for herself; which was
wise of her, for to prophesy on behalf of every one
who may yearn for a raising of the curtain, be it
of never so small a corner, on all possible subjects,
is to usurp the general functions of the Almighty.
Wisely therefore, Madame Voisin became a special-

164

WITCHCRAFT 165

ist. Her subject was husbands; her chief theme
their longevity. Naturally such women as were
unsatisfied with the personality, circumstances, or
fortunes of their partners, joined the mass of her
clientele, a mass which taking it "bye and large"
maintained a strange exactness of dimensions.
This did not much trouble the public, or even the
body of her clients, for no one except Madame
herself knew their numbers. It was certainly a
strange thing how accurately Madame guessed, for
she had seemingly no data to go on — the longevity
of the husbands were never taken into the confidence
of the prophet. She took care to keep almost to
herself the rare good fortune, in a sense, which at-
tended her divination ; for ever since the misfortune
which had attended the late Marquise de Brinvil-
liers became public, the powers of the law had taken
a quite unnecessary interest in the proceedings of
all of her cult. Longevity is quite a one-sided ar-
rangement of nature ; we can only be sure of its ac-
curacy when it is too late to help in its accomplish-
ment. In such a game there is only one throw of
the dice, so that it behoves anyone who would wager
successfully to be very sure that the chances are in
his — or her — favour.

Madame Voisin's clients were generally in a
hurry, and so were willing to take any little trouble
or responsibility necessary to ensure success. They
had two qualities which endear customers to those
of La Voisin's trade; they were grateful and they

166 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

were silent. That they were of cheery and hopeful
spirit was shown by the fact that as a rule they
married again soon after the dark cloud of bereave-
ment had fallen on them. When the funeral baked
meats have coldly furnished forth the marriage
tables, it is better to remain as inconspicuous as pos-
sible; friends and onlookers will take notice, and,
when they notice, they will talk. Moreover the
new partner is often suspicious and apt to be
a little jealous of his predecessor in title. Thus,
Madame Voisin being clever and discreet, and
her clients being — or at any rate appearing to
be — happy in their new relations and silent to
the world at large, all went prosperously with
the kindly-hearted prophet. No trouble rose as
to testamentary dispositions. Men who are the
subjects of prophecy have usually excellently-
drawn wills. This is especially the case with
husbands who are no longer young. Young
husbands are as a rule not made the subjects
of prophecy.

Madame Voisin's great accuracy of prediction
did not excite at the time so much public admiration
as it might have done if she or her clients had taken
the public more into their confidence; but it was
noted afterwards that in most cases the male indi-
vidual who retired early from the scene was the
senior partner in that congeries of three which has
come to be known as "the eternal triangle." In
later conversations, following in the wake of the

WITCHCRAFT 167

completed prophecy, confidences were exchanged
as to the studies in certain matters of science in
which Madame Voisin seemed to have attained a
rare proficiency.

The late Mr. Charles Peace, an adventurous if
acquisitive spirit, who gave up his life in the same
manner as the deceased Mr. Haman, worked alone
during the long period of his professional existence,
and with misleading safety. The illustrious French
lady-prophet unwisely did not value this form of
security, and so multiplied opportunities of failure.
She followed an entirely opposite policy, one which
though it doubtless stood by her on many occasions
had a fatal weakness. In some^ways it may facili-
tate matters if one is one's own Providence ; such a
course avoids temporarily errors of miscalculation
or deduction of probable results. And just as the
roulette table has certain chances in favour of Zero,
there is for the practical prophet a large hazard
in that the dead are unable to speak or to renew
effort on a more favourable basis. La Voisin, prob-
ably through some unfavourable or threatening ex-
periences, saw the wisdom of associating the forces
of prediction and accomplishment, and with the
readiness of an active personality effected the junc-
tion. For this she was already fairly well equipped
with experiences. Both as a wife and a lover of
warm and voluptuous nature she understood some-
thing of the passions of humanity, on both the
female and the male side; and being a woman she

168 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

knew perhaps better of the two the potency of fem-
inine longing. This did not act so strongly in the
lesser and more directly commercial, if less uncer-
tain, phases of her art, such as finding lost prop-
erty, divining the result of hazards, effecting
immunity from danger, or the preserving indefi-
nitely the more pleasing qualities of youth. But
in sterner matters, when the issue was of life or
death, the masculine tendency towards recklessness
kicked the beam. As a nurse in active touch with
both medical and surgical wants, aims, and achieve-
ments, she was at ease in the larger risks of daily
life. And after all, her own ambitions, aided by
the compelling of her own natural demands for
physical luxury, were quite independent, only seek-
ing through exiguous means a way of achievement.
In secret she studied the mystery of a toxicologist ;
and, probably by cautious experiment, satisfied her-
self of her proficiency in that little-known science.
That she had other aims, more or less dependent
on this or the feelings which its knowledge super-
induced, can be satisfactorily guessed from some
of her attendant labours which declared themselves
later.

After a time La Voisin's vogue as a sorceress
brought her into certain high society where free-
dom of action was unhampered by moral restraints.
The very rich, the leaders of society and fashion
of the time, the unscrupulous whose ambitious
efforts had been crowned with success of a kind,

WITCHCRAFT 169

leaders of Court life, those in high military com-
mand, mistresses of royalty and high aristocracy —
all became companions and clients in one or more
of her mysterious arts. Amongst them were the
Duchesse de Bouillon, the Comtesse de Soissons,
Madame de Montespan, Olympe de Mancini, Mar-
shal de Luxembourg, the Due de Vendome, Prince
de Clermont-Lodeve. It was not altogether fash-
ionable not to be in touch with Madame Voisin.
Undeterred by the lessons of history, La Voisin
went on her way, forced as is usual in such cases
by the circumstances which grow around the crim-
inal and prove infinitely the stronger. She was at
the height of her success when the public suspicion,
followed by action, revealed the terrible crimes of
the Marquise de Brinvilliers; and she was caught
in the tail of the tempest thus created.

This case of Madame de Brinvilliers is a typical
one of how a human being, goaded by passion and
lured by opportunity, may fall swiftly from any
estate. It is so closely in touch with that of
Madame Voisin that the two have almost to be con-
sidered together. They began with the desire for
dabbling in forbidden mysteries. Three men —
two Italians and one German, all men of some abil-
ity — were violent searchers for the mythical "phi-
losopher's stone" which was to fulfil the dream of
the mediaeval alchemist by turning at will all things
into gold. In the search they all gravitated to
Paris. There the usual thing happened. Money

170 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

ran short and foolish hoping had to be supple-
mented by crime. In the whirling world of the
time there was always a ready sale for means to
an end, however nefarious either might be. The
easy morality of the time allowed opportunity for
all means, with the result that there was an almost
open dealing in poisons. The soubriquet which stole
into existence — it dared not proclaim itself — is a
self-explanatory historical lesson. The poudre de
succession marks an epoch which, for sheer, regard-
less, remorseless, profligate wickedness is almost
without peer in history, and this is said without
forgetting the time of the Borgias. Not even nat-
ural affection or family life or individual relation-
ship or friendliness was afforded any consideration.
This phase of crime, which was one almost con-
fined to the upper and wealthier classes, depended
on wealth and laws of heredity and entail. Those
who benefited by it salved what remnants of con-
science still remained to them with the thought
that they were but helping the natural process of
waste and recuperation. The old and feeble were
removed, with as little coil as might be necessary,
in order that the young and lusty might benefit.
As the change was a form of plunder, which had
to be paid for in a degree in some way approximate
to results, prices ran high. Poisoning on a success-
ful scale requires skilful and daring agents, whose
after secrecy as well as whose present aid has to
be secured. Exili and Glasser — one of the Italians

WITCHCRAFT 171

and the German — did a thriving trade. As usual
in such illicit traffic, the possibility of purchase un-
der effective conditions made a market. There is
every reason to believe from after results that La
Voisin was one such agent. The cause of La Brin-
villiers entering the market was the purely personal
one of an affair of sensual passion. Death is an in-
formative circumstance. Suspicion began to leak
out that the polyglot firm of needy foreigners had
dark dealings. Two of them — the Italians — were
arrested and sent to the Bastille where one of them
died. By unhappy chance the other was given as
cell-companion Captain Sainte-Croix, who was a
lover of the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Sainte-
Croix as a Captain in the regiment of the Marquis
had become intimate in his house. Brinvilliers was
a fatuous person and of imperfect moral vision.
The Captain was handsome, and Madame la Mar-
quise amorous. Behold then all the usual personnel
of a tragedy of three. After a while the intrigue
became a matter of family concern. The lady's
father, — the Civil Lieutenant d'Aulroy, procured
a lettre de cachet, and had the erring lover immured
in the Bastille as the easiest and least public way
out of the difficulty. "Evil communications cor-
rupt good manners," says the proverb. The pro-
verbial philosopher understated the danger of such
juxtaposition. Evil manners added corruption
even to their kind. In the Bastille the exasperated
lover listened to the wiles of Exili; and another

172 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

stage of misdoing began. The Marquise deter-
mined on revenge, and be sure that in such a case
in such a period even the massive walls of the
Bastille could not prevent the secret whisper of
a means of effecting it. D'Aulroy, his two sons,
and another sister perished. Brinvilliers himself
was spared through some bizarre freak of his wife's
conscience. Then the secret began to be whispered
— first, it was said, through the confessional; and
the Chambre Ar&ente, analogous to the British Star
Chamber, instituted for such purposes, took the case
in hand. The result might have been doubtful, for
great social forces were at work to hush up such
a scandal, but that, with a truly seventeenth century
candour, the prisoner had written an elaborate con-
fession of her guilt, which if it did not directly
assure condemnation at least put justice on the right
track.

The trial was a celebrated one, and involved inci-
dentally many illustrious persons as well as others
of lesser note. In the end, in 1676, Madame la
Marquise de Brinvilliers was burned — that is, what
was left of her was burned after her head had been
cut off, a matter of grace in consideration of her
rank. It is soothing to the feelings of many rela-
tives and friends — not to mention those of the prin-
cipal — in such a case when "great command o'er-
sways the order" of purgation by fire.

Before the eddy of the Brinvilliers' criminal
scandal reached to the lower level of Madame

WITCHCRAFT 173

Voisin, a good many scandals were aired; though
again "great command" seems to have been opera-
tive, so far as human power availed, in minimising
both scandals and punishments. Amongst those
cited to the Ghambre Ardente were two nieces of
Cardinal Mazarin, the Duchesse de Bouillon, the
Comtesse de Soissons, and Marshal de Luxem-
bourg. In some of these cases that which in the-
atrical parlance is called "comic relief" was not
wanting. It was a witty if impertinent answer of
the Duchesse de Bouillon to one of her judges,
La Reyne, an ill-favoured man, who asked, apropos
of a statement made at the trial that she had taken
part in an alleged invocation of Beelzebub, "and
did you ever see the Devil?" —

"Yes, I am looking at him now. He is ugly,
and is disguised as a Councillor of State!"

The King, Louis XIV, took much interest in
the trial and even tried now and again to smooth
matters. He even went so far as to advise the
Comtesse de Soissons who was treated by the Court
rather as a foolish than a guilty woman, to keep
out of the way if she were really guilty. In an-
swer she said with the haughtiness of her time that
though she was innocent she did not care to appear
in a Law Court. She withdrew to Brussels where
she died some twenty years later. Marshal de
Luxembourg — Francois Henri de Montmorenci-
Boutteville, duke, peer, Marshal of France to give
his full titles — was shown to have engaged in an

174 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

attempt to recover lost property by occult means.
On which basis and for having once asked Madame
Voisin to produce his Satanic Majesty, he was
alleged to have sold himself to the Devil. But his
occult adventures did not stand in the way of his
promotion as a soldier though he had to stand a
trial of over a year long; he was made Captain
of the Guard and finally given command of the
Army.

La Voisin with her accomplices — a woman named
Vigoureux and Le Sage, a priest — were with a
couple of score of others arrested in 1679, and were,
after a spell of imprisonment in the Bastille, tried.
As a result Voisin, Vigoureux and her brother, and
Le Sage were burned early in 1680. In Voisin's
case the mercy of previous decapitation, which had
been accorded to her guilty sister Brinvilliers, was
not extended to her. Perhaps this was partly be-
cause of the attitude which she had taken up with
regard to religious matters. Amongst other unfor-
givable acts she had repelled the Crucifix — a ter-
rible thing to do according to the ideas of that
superstitious age.

D. SIR EDWARD KELLEY

CARLYLE in his French Revolution makes
a contrast between two works of imagina-
tion which mark the extremes of the forces
that made for the disruption of France, Paul et
Virginie and Le Chevalier de Faublas. The for-
mer he calls "the swan-song of old dying France";
of the latter he says "if this wretched Faublas is
a death-speech, it is one under the gallows, and by
a felon that does not repent." This double anal-
ogy may well serve for a comparison of Dr. Dee
and the man who was at once his partner for a
time, and his evil genius. The grave earnest old
scholar, with instincts for good, high endeavour,
and a vast intellectual strength, contrasts well with
the mean-souled shifty specious rogue who fas-
tened himself on him and leech-like drained him
"dry as hay."

Such historians as mention the existence of the
latter are even a little doubtful how to spell his
name. This, however, does not matter much — nay,
at all, for it is probably not that to which he was
born. Briefly the following is his record as far as
can be discovered. He was born in 1555 to parents
living in Worcester, who having tried to bring him

175

176 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

up as an apothecary, sent him to Oxford when he
was seventeen years of age. There he was entered
at Gloucester Hall, under the name of Talbot. As
however three men of that name were in the Hall
at the same time, it is doubtful what family can
claim the honour of his kinship. His college life
was short — only lasting a year — and inconspicuous.
"He left," we are told, "abruptly." Then, as if to
complete the purely educational phase of his exist-
ence, he was for a while an attorney, eking out the
tenuity of his legal practice by aid of forgery.
Thus full-fledged for his work in life, he made his
first properly-recorded appearance in the pillory in
1580, for an offence which is variously spoken of
as forgery and coining. At any rate his ears were
cropped off, a loss which necessitated for pruden-
tial reasons his wearing a skullcap for the remainder
of his days. This he wore with such conspicuous
success that it is said that even Doctor Dee, who
was his partner for nearly seven years, did not
know of his mutilation. Kelley's next recorded
offence was one which in a later age when subjects
for dissection (necessary for purposes of education
in anatomy) were difficult to obtain, was popularly
known as "body-snatching." The commission of
this offence though a serious breach of the law, came
to be regarded as a necessary condition of study;
and even if punishment was meted out, it was not
looked upon as dishonour. But in Kelley's case
the offence was committed not for the purpose of

WITCHCRAFT 177

scientific education but for one of sorcery. It took
place in Walton-le-dale in Lancashire, where Kel-
ley dug up a body buried on the previous day, for
purposes of necromancy, which, it will be remem-
bered, was, as the etymology of the word implies,
divination by means of the dead.

From this time on, he seemed to see his way clear
to the final choice of a profession. He had tasted
crime and punishment, and considered himself well
qualified to accept the risks as well as the benefits ;
and so chose fraud as his life work. He was still
under twenty-five years of age when he began to
look about him for his next means or occasion of
turning his special talents to profit. After some
deliberation he fixed on the existence and qualities
of the famous (as he had then become) Doctor
Dee, and carefully commenced operations. He
called on the mathematician at his house at Mort-
lake and made his acquaintance. Dee was naturally
impressed by the conversation and ostensible qual-
ities of the young man, who had the plausibility
of the born rogue and laid himself out to captivate
the old man, more than double his companion's age
and worn by arduous study. He fostered all
Dee's natural weaknesses, humoured his fads, was
enthusiastic regarding his beliefs which he appeared
to share, and urged on his personal ambitions. The
belief in occultism which the philosopher cherished
in secret, though he had openly and formally re-
pudiated it a dozen years before in his preface to

178 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Sir Henry Billingsley's translation of Euclid, gave
the parasitic rogue his cue for further ingratiating
himself, and before long he entered Dee's service
at an annual salary of fifty pounds. His special
function was that of "skryer," which was his own or
Dee's reading of "seer." His contribution to the
general result was to see the figures which did —
or did not — appear in the so-called "magic" crystal,
an office for which his useful imagination, his un-
blushing assurance, and his utter unscrupulousness
eminently fitted him. In fact he was in his designs
of fraud a perfect complement of the simple-
minded scientist. Of course as days went on and
opportunities offered themselves, through Dee's
growing madness and Kelley's social enlargements,
the horizon of chicanery widened. This was largely
assisted by the opportune arrival in England of
the Palatine Albert Laski in 1583. Laski was just
the man that Kelley was waiting for. A rich man
with a taste for occult science; sufficiently learned
to keep in touch with the theories of occultism of
that time; sufficiently vain to be used by an unscrup-
ulous adventurer who tickled his intellectual palate
whilst he matured his frauds upon him.

Kelley having worked on Dee's feelings suffi-
ciently to secure his acquiescence, procured that
Laski should be allowed to aid in such operations
and experiments as appealed to him. The result
was that the Palatine took the two men with him,
promising a free field for them both, each accord-

WITCHCRAFT 179

ing to his bent. At Prague, in 1583, Laski pre-
sented Dee and his companion to the Emperor
Rudolph II. Encouraged by the royal approval,
Dee looked for a longer sojourn in eastern Europe,
and brought thither his wife and children from
Poland, where he had left them at Laskoe, the
seat of the Palatine. Later on, in 1585, — again
through the influence of the credulous Laski — Dee
with his companion was presented to Stephen, King
of Poland. Stephen was much interested, and
attended a seance that he might see the spirits of
which he had heard so much. He saw too much,
however, as far as Kelley was concerned, for he
penetrated the imposture. Thereupon Kelley, un-
equal to carrying on the business single-handed, for
he dared not let Dee's eyes be opened and he knew
he could not induce him to be other than a blind
partner, contrived that a new confederate should
be added to the firm. This was one Francis Pucci,
a Florentine, possessed of all the address and sub-
tlety of his race. But after the experience of a
year he was removed on suspicion of bad faith.
Before that year was out, the Bishop of Piacenza,
Apostolic Nuncio at the Emperor's Court, had a
decree issued that the two Englishmen should quit
Prague within six days. From Prague they went
to Erfurt, in Thuringia; but despite letters of rec-
ommendation from high quarters the Municipal
Authorities would not allow them to remain. So
they moved on to Hesse-Cassel and thence to Tri-

180 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

bau in Bohemia, where the fraud of making spirits
appear was renewed. In 1586, it was intimated to
Dee that the Emperor of Russia wished to receive
him in that country. He would receive a fee of
two thousand pounds per annum and would be
treated with honour; but the scholar did not see
his way to accept the flattering offer. At
Tribau, Kelley experimented, but unsuccessfully,
with some powder found at Glastonbury, Dee's
young son being the medium. It was noticeable
that whenever Dee or his family failed in these
experiments, Kelley always succeeded. At this
stage Kelley, who was a man of evil life, fell madly
in love with Dee's wife. He was married himself,
but that did not seem to matter. His own wife was
ugly and unattractive, whereas the second Mrs. Dee
was well-favoured and winning. In the madness
of his lust he tried to work on the husband's credu-
lity by telling him that it had been conveyed to
him through angels that it was the Divine wish
that the two men should hold their wives in com-
mon. Dee was naturally sceptical and annoyed,
and his wife was furious. Kelley, however, was
persistent, and stuck to his point so stedfastly that
after a while the woman's resolution began to give
way, and for a time some sort of working arrange-
ment came about. Kelley's story, as elaborated to
his partner, was that at Tribau, in 1587, the crystal
showed him a vision of a naked woman who con-
veyed to him the divine message. To Dee's un-

WITCHCRAFT 181

hinged mind this seemed all natural and correct —
probably even to the suitable costume adopted by
the angelic messenger: so the worthy doctor gave
way. After a time however the matron recovered
her sanity, and the vulture and the pigeon parted.
Dee gave up to his late partner all the "tools of
trade" and "properties" of the fraud, and the two
never met again.

Kelley went to Prague where he was thrown into
prison in 1589. He remained in durance for four
years after which he was released. From thence
on till 1595, he became a vagabond as well as a
rogue, and wandered about Germany. He again
fell into the hands of Rudolph, to be again impris-
oned by him. He was killed whilst making a des-
perate effort to escape.

There seems to be no record of Edward Kelley —
or Talbot — having been knighted, no authority
save his own wish for the use of the title. It may
of course be possible that he was knighted by the
Emperor in some moment of absurd credulity ; but
there is no record of it. He had no children.

E. MOTHER DAMNABLE

OWING to a want of accord among his-
torians, the searcher after historic truth in
our own day can hardly be quite sure
of the identity of the worthy lady who passed under
the above enchanting title. To later generations
the district of Camden Town — formerly a suburb
of London but now a fairly central part of it —
is best known through a public house, the Mother
Red-Cap. But before controversy can cease we
are called on to decide if Mother Red-Cap and
Mother Damnable were one and the same person.
A hundred years ago a writer who had made such
subjects his own, came to the conclusion that the
soubriquet Mother Damnable was synonymous with
Mother Black-Cap whom he spoke of as of local
fame. But in the century that has elapsed his-
torical research has been more scientifically organ-
ised and the field from which conclusions can be
drawn has been enlarged as well as explored. The
fact is that a century ago the northern suburb had
two well-known public houses, Mother Red-Cap
and Mother Black-Cap. It is possible that both
the worthy vintners who offered "entertainment for
man and beast" meant one and the same person,

182

WITCHCRAFT 183

though who that person was remains to be seen.
The distinctive colour line of the two hostelries was
also possibly due to considerations of business
rather than of art. Red-cap and Black-cap are, as
names, drawn from these varying sign-boards; the
term Mother held in common is simply a title given
without any pretence of doing honour to the alleged
practices of the person whom it is intended to des-
ignate.

There were in fact two notorious witches, either
of whom might have been in the mind of either
artistic designer. One was of Yorkshire fame in
the time of Henry VII. The other was of very
much later date and of purely local notoriety. The
two publicans who exploited these identities under
pictorial garb were open and avowed trade rivals.
The earlier established of the two had evidently
commissioned a painter to create a striking sign-
board on a given subject, and the artist had ful-
filled his task by an alleged portrait of sufficiently
fearsome import to fix the attention of the
passer-by, at the same time conveying to him some
hint of the calling of the archetype on which her
fame was based. Prosperity in the venture begot
rivalry ; and the owner of the new house of refresh-
ment, wishing to outshine his rival in trade whilst at
the same time availing himself of the publicity and
local fame already achieved, commissioned another
artist to commit another pictorial atrocity under
the name of art. So far as the purpose of publicity

184 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

went, the ideas were similar; the only differences
being in the colour scheme and the measure of
attractiveness of the alleged prototype. From the
indications thus given one may form some opinion
— based solely on probability — as to which was the
earlier and which the later artistic creation, for it
is by this means — and this means only — that we
may after the lapse of at least a century bring tra-
dition to our aid, and guess at the original of
Mother Damnable.

Of the two signs it seems probable that the black
one is the older. After all, the main purpose of a
sign-board is to catch the eye, and unless Titian
and all who followed him are wrong, red has an
attractive value beyond all other hues. The dictum
of the great Italian is unassailable: "Red catches
the eye; yellow holds it; blue gives distance." A
f ree-souled artist with the choice of the whole palette
open to him might choose black since historical
accuracy was a matter to be valued ; but in a ques-
tion of competition a painter would wisely choose
red — especially when his rival had confined him-
self to black. So far as attractiveness is concerned,
it must be borne in mind that the object of the
painter and his patron was to bring customers to
a London suburban public house in the days of
George III. To-day there is a cult of horrors in
Paris which has produced some choice specimens
of decorative art, such for instance as the cafe
known as Le Rat Mort.

WITCHCRAFT 185

Such places lure their customers by curiosity and
sheer horror ; but the persons lured are from a class
dominated by "Gallic effervescence" and attracted
by anything that is bizarre, and not of the class
of the stolid beer-drinking Briton. But even the
most stolid of men is pleased by the beauty of a
woman; so the sign-painter — who knows his art
well, and has evolved from the ranks of his calling
such a man as Franz Hals — we may be sure, when
he wished to please, took for his model some
gracious personality.

Now the artist of the lady of dark headgear let
his imagination run free and produced a face typ-
ical of all the sins of the Decalogue. We may
therefore take it on the ground of form as well
as that of colour that priority of date is to be given
to Mother Black-Cap. There is good ground
for belief that this deduction is correct. Naturally
the owner of the earliest public-house wished to
make it as attractive as possible; and as Camden
Town was a suburb through which the northern
traffic passed on its way to and from London, it
was wise to use for publicity and entertainment
names that were familiar to north country ears.
Before the railways were organised the great
wheeled and horse-traffic between London and the
North — especially Yorkshire which was one of the
first Counties to take up manufacturing and had
already most of the wool trade — went through
Camden Town. So it was wise forethought to take

186 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

as an inn sign a Yorkshire name. The name of
Mother Shipton had been in men's mouths and ears
for about two hundred years, and as the times had
so changed that the old stigma of witchcraft was
not then understood, the association of the name
with Knaresborough alone remained. And so
Mother Shipton of Knaresborough was intended
as the prototype of the inn portrait with black head-
gear at Camden Town. In the ordinary course of
development and business one of the two inns suc-
ceeded and lasted better than the other. And as
Mother Red-Cap has as a name supplanted Mother
Damnable, we may with some understanding dis-
cuss who that lady was.

She was a well-known shrew of Kentish Town,
daughter of one Jacob Bingham, a local brick-
maker, who had married the daughter of a Scotch
pedlar manifestly not of any high moral character
as shown by her later acts and the general mistrust
which attended them. They had one daughter,
Jinny, who in wickedness outdid her parents. She
was naturally warm-blooded and had a child when
she was sixteen by a man of no account, George
Coulter, known as Gipsy George. Whatever affec-
tion may have existed between them was cut short
by his arrest — and subsequent execution at Tyburn
— for sheepstealing. In her second quasi-matri-
monial venture Jinny lived a cat-and-dog life with
a man called Darby who spent his time in getting
drunk and trying to get over it. Number Two's

WITCHCRAFT 187

end was also tragic. After a violent quarrel with
his companion he disappeared. Then there was
domestic calm for a while, possibly due to the fact
that Bingham and his wife were being tried also
on a charge of witchcraft, complicated with another
capital charge of procuring the death of a young
woman. They were both hanged and thereafter
Jinny found time for another episode of love-mak-
ing and took up with a man called Pitcher. He
too disappeared, but his body, burned almost to a
cinder, was discovered in a neighbouring oven.
Jinny was tried for murder, but escaped on the
plea that the man often took refuge in the oven
when he wished to get beyond reach of the woman's
venomous tongue, to which fact witness was borne
by certain staunch companions of Miss Bingham.

Jinny's third venture towards happy companion-
ship, though it lasted much longer, was attended
with endless bitter quarrelling, and came to an
equally tragic end, had at the beginning a spice of
romance. This individual, whose name has seem-
ingly not been recorded, being pursued in Com-
monwealth times for some unknown offence,
had sought her aid in attempting to escape.
This she had graciously accorded, with the con-
sequence that they lived together some years
in the greatest unhappiness.

At length he died — of poison, but by whom ad-
ministered did not transpire at the inquest. For
the rest of her life Miss Bingham, who was now

188 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

old, lived under the suspicion of being a witch.
Her ostensible occupation was as a teller of for-
tunes and a healer of odd diseases — occupations
which singly or together make neither for personal
esteem or general confidence. Her public appear-
ances were usually attended by hounding and bait-
ing by the rabble; and whenever anything went
wrong in her neighbourhood the blame was, with
overt violence of demeanour, attributed to her.
She did not even receive any of the respect usually
shown to a freeholder — which she was, having by
her father's death become owner of a house which
he had built for himself with his own hands on
waste ground. Her only protector was that usual
favourite of witches, a black cat, whose devotion
to her and whose savage nature, accompanied by
the public fear shown for an animal which was
deemed her "familiar," caused the mob to flee be-
fore its appearance.

The tragedy and mystery of her life were even
exceeded by those of her death. When, having
been missed for some time, her house was entered
she, attended only by her cat and with her crutch
by her side, was found crouching beside the cold
ashes of her extinct fire. In the tea-pot beside her
was some liquid, seemingly brewed from herbs.
Willing hands administered some of this to the
black cat, whose hair, within a very short time, fell
off. The cat forthwith died. Then the clamour
began. Very many people suddenly remembered

WITCHCRAFT 189

having seen, after her last appearance in public, the
Devil entering her house. No one, however, had
seen him come out again. What a pity it was that
no veracious scribe or draughtsman was present in
the crowd which had noticed the Devil's entry to
the house. In such case we might have got a real
likeness of His Satanic Majesty — a thing which
has long been wanted — and the opportunities of
obtaining which are few.

One peculiar fact is recorded of Madame Dam-
nable's burial; her body was so stiff from the rigor
mortis — or from some other cause — that the under-
takers had to break her limbs before they could
put her body in the coffin.

F. MATTHEW HOPKINS

THERE is one thing more evil than oppres-
sion in the shape of wrong-doing, and that
is oppression in the guise of good. Tenny-
son, in one of his poems, speaks of the dishonest
pharmacist who "pestles a poison'd poison." This
is a refinement of iniquity ; a poisoned poison is not
even an enlargement of evil but a structural
change eliminating the intention of good and re-
placing it with evil intent. Witches were quite
bad enough; or rather they would have been,
had that which was alleged of them been true.
But a man who got his living by creating sus-
picion regarding them and following it out to
the practical consummation of a hideous death,
was a thousand times worse. To-day such a
functionary as a witch-finder exists, it is true;
but only amongst the very lowest and most
debased savages. And it is only by the recorded
types made known to us that it is possible even to
guess at the iniquity of their measures, the vileness
of their actions. In the full tally of the two cen-
turies during which the witch mania existed in
England, it is impossible to parallel the baseness
of the one man who distinguished himself in this

190

WITCHCRAFT 191

loathsome occupation. The facts of his history
speak for themselves. Matthew Hopkins was
born in Suffolk early in the seventeenth century.
He was the son of a minister, James Hopkins of
Wenham. He was brought up for the law, and
when enrolled as an attorney, practised in Ipswich;
but after a while he moved to Manningtree where,
after he had given up the law, he took to the calling
of witch-finder, being the first person in England
to follow that honourable trade.

If he had had no suitable opportunities of
earning an honest livelihood and been graced
with no education, some excuse might have been
offered for his despicable calling. But when
we remember that he passed his youth in a
household practising religion, and was a mem-
ber of a learned profession, it is difficult to find
words sufficiently comprehensive for the fit ex-
pression of our natural indignation against him.
If picturesque profanity were allowable, it might
be well applied to this despicable wretch and his
nefarious labours. In no imaginable circumstances
could there possibly be anything to be said in miti-
gation of his infamy. When we think that the
whole ritual of oppression was in his own hands —
that he began with lying and perjury, and ended
with murder; that he showed, throughout, ruthless
callousness for the mental and physical torture of
great numbers of the most helpless class of the
community, the poor, the weak, the suffering, the

192 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

helpless and hopeless; that when once his foul im-
agination had consecrated any poor wretch to de-
struction, or his baleful glance had unhappily
lighted on some unsuspecting victim there was for
such only the refuge of death, and that by some
means of prolonged torture, we cannot find any
hope or prospect even in evil dreams of the nether
world, of any adequate punishment for his dread-
ful sins. When we remember that this one man —
if man he can be called — was in himself responsible
for what amounted to the murder of some two hun-
dred women whom he pursued to the death, the
magnitude of his guilt can be guessed but not
realised.

He occupied three whole years in his fell
work; and in those years, 1644, 1645 and 1646, he
caused a regular reign of terror throughout the
counties of Huntingdon, Norfolk, Suffolk and Es-
sex. He had a gang of his own to help him in his
gruesome work of "discovering" witches; amongst
whom was a wretch called John Stern and — to
her shame — a woman, whose name is unrecorded.
These three had a sort of mock assize of their own.
They made regular tours of discovery, at a charge
of twenty shillings for expenses at each place they
visited. There appears to have been a fee paid or
exacted for each witch "bagged"; and such was his
greed that after a while he actually lowered the
price. In 1645, which was perhaps his "best" year,
the price declined to a shilling a head. Hopkins

WITCHCRAFT 193

and his gang took comfort, however, from the fact
that the industry was a growing one. The trade
had only been initiated in 1644, and already in a
year's time he had in one day procured the execu-
tion of eighteen alleged witches ; and at the end of
that assize, after the gaol delivery had been
effected, one hundred and twenty suspects still
awaited trial. In the skilful hands of Matthew
Hopkins, trial was only a step on the road to cer-
tain execution by one of the forms in use. Here
came in, not only the witchfinder's legal knowledge,
but also his gift of invention — the latter being
used in the formulation of so-called "tests" which
were bound to be effective. Of these the simplest
was the water test. The subject's thumbs were tied
together and she was then thrown into water of
sufficient depth. If she did not drown, it was taken
as a proof of guilt; and she was hanged by form
of law. In some cases, as an alternative, she was
burned. If she did not stand the test her friends
had the pleasure of knowing that she was pro-
nounced to have died innocent. In any case there
was no further trouble with her. Such was the
accuracy as well as the simplicity of similar "tests"
that, in the twenty years previous to the Restora-
tion, between three and four thousand alleged
witches perished in England from one cause or an-
other. Hopkins professed to be both just and
merciful. He seemed generally willing to afford
a "test" to the accused; though, truth to tell, the

194 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

result was always the same. In such cases the test
was eminently calculated to evoke confession, and
such confession, no matter how ridiculous or ex-
travagant it might be, was simply a curved road to
the rope or the torch instead of a straight one.
One of these pleasing "tests" was to place the old
woman — they were all women and all old — sitting
cross-legged on a stool or table where she could be
well watched. She was generally kept in that po-
sition under inspection, without food or water, for
twenty-four hours. At the end of that time such
resolution as had remained disappeared, and in the
vain blind hope of some change for the better, some
alleviation however slight of the grinding misery,
of the agony of body and mind and soul, they con-
fessed. And such confessions! The very consid-
eration of such of them as now remain in the cold
third-person method of a mere recorder, almost
makes one weep; there is hardly a word that is not
almost a certificate of character. With every de-
sire to confess — for such was the last hope of
pleasing their torturers — their utter ignorance
of confessional matter is almost a proof of in-
nocence.

Just imagine the scene — a village or hamlet, or
the poorer quarter of a small country town with
squalid surroundings, marking a poverty which in
this age has no equal; a poor, old, lonely woman
whose long life of sordid misery, of hunger and the
diseases that huddle closely around want, hopeless,

WITCHCRAFT 195

despairing, recognising her fate through the pro-
longed physical torture with which age and infirm-
ity rendered her unable even to attempt to cope.
Round her gathered, in a sickly ring, a crowd of
creatures debased by the exercise of greed and
cruelty to a lower level than the beasts. Their ob-
ject is not to inquire, to test, to judge; but only to
condemn, to wreck, to break, to shatter. Some of
them, she realises even in her agony, are spurred on
by the same zeal which animated the cruelty of fol-
lowers of Ignatius in the grim torture-chambers of
the Inquisition.

The poor dazed, suffering old creature, racked
with pains prolonged beyond endurance, tries to
rally such glimmerings of invention as are possible
to her untaught, unfed mind; but finds herself at
every failure fluttering helplessly against a wall of
spiritual granite which gives back not even an echo
to her despairing cry. At last she comes to that
stage where even fright and fear have no standing
room, and where the blank misery of suffering
ceases to be effective. Then the last flicker of de-
sire for truth or rectitude of purpose dies away,
and she receives in feeble acquiescence such sug-
gestions as are shouted or whispered to her, in the
hope that by accepting them she may win a mo-
ment's ease of body or mind, even if it be her last
on earth. Driven beyond mortal limits her untu-
tored mind gives way; and with the last remnants
of her strength she yields her very soul to her perse-

196 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

cutors. The end does not matter to her now.
Life has no more to offer her — even of pain, which
is the last conscious tie to existence. And through
it all, ghoul-like, watching and waiting for the col-
lapse, whilst outwardly he goes through the
mechanical ritual of prayer, we see in the back-
ground the sinister figure of the attorney, prepar-
ing in his mind such evidence as he may procure or
invent for his work of the next day.

It needs the imagination of a Dante to consider
what should be the place of such an one in history,
and any eternity of punishment that that imagina-
tion could suggest must be inadequate. Even
pity itself which rests on sympathy and is kin to
the eternal spirit of justice, would have imagined
with satisfaction the wretched soul going through a
baleful eternity clinging in perpetual agony of fear
to the very King of Terrors.

In judging Matthew Hopkins one must not, in
justice to others, accord him any of the considera-
tion which is the due of good intent. Not a score of
years after his shameful death, a man was born in
a newer land far beyond the separating sea, who
through his influence, his teaching, the expression
of his honest conviction, was the cause of perhaps
more deaths than the English anti-witch. We re-
fer to Cotton Mather, who believed he wrought for
the Lord — in his own way — in Xew England. But
guilt does not attach to him. He was an earnest,
though mistaken man, and the results of his mis-

WITCHCRAFT 197

taken teaching were at variance with the trend of
his kindly, godly life.

It must be pleasing to the spirit of the Old Adam
which is in us all in some form, to think of the
manner of the death of Matthew Hopkins. Three
years had exhausted not only the material available
for his chosen work, but, what was worse for him,
the patience of the community. Moreover, he had
given cause for scandal in even his own degraded
trade and in himself, the filthiest thing in connec-
tion with it. Xot content with dealing with the
poor, helpless folk, whom he had come to regard
as his natural prey, he went on fancy flights of
oppression. At last he went too far. He ven-
tured to denounce an aged clergyman of blameless
life. The witch-fever was too strong for justice
in any form, and neither age, high character,
nor sacred office could protect this gentleman of
eighty years of age. He too was tortured, till in a
moment of unhinged mind, he confessed as he was
ordered, and was duly hanged. This was in 1645.
The old man's death was not in vain, for it was
made the occasion of much necessary plain speak-
ing. Presently the public conscience was wakened ;
chiefly by another cleric, the Rev. John Caule,
vicar of Great Staughton, Huntingdonshire — all
honour to him! — who, though strange to say he be-
lieved in witchcraft, realised the greater evil
wrought by men like Hopkins. He published a
pamphlet in which he denounced Hopkins as a com-

198 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

mon nuisance. The result, if slow, was sure. The
witch-finder never recovered from the shock of
Caule's vigorous attack. In 1647, on information
based on Hopkins' own rules, he was arrested and
subjected to the test which he had devised: he was
tied by the thumbs and thrown into the water. Un-
fortunately for himself he withstood the test —
drowning, except for a short period of pangs, is an
easy death — and so was by process of Law duly
hanged.

One can imagine how the whole atmosphere of
the country — surcharged with suspicion, fear, op-
pression, torture, perjury or crime — was cleared by
the execration which followed the removal of this
vile wretch.

VI. ARTHUR ORTON

VI. ARTHUR ORTON

(The Tichborne Claimant.)

m

IN the annals of crime, Arthur Orton, the no-
torious claimant to the rich estates and title of
Tichborne, takes a foremost place ; not only as
the originator of one of the most colossal attempts
at fraud on record, but also from his remarkable
success in duping the public. It would be difficult
indeed to furnish a more striking example of
the height to which the blind credulity of peo-
ple will occasionally attain. Of pretenders,
who by pertinacious and unscrupulous lying
have sought to bolster up fictitious claims, there
have been many before Orton; but he certainly
surpassed all his predecessors in working out
the lie circumstantial in such a way as to divide
the country for years into two great parties — those
who believed in the Claimant, and those who did
not. Over one hundred persons, drawn from every
class, and for the most part honest in their belief,
swore to the identity of this illiterate butcher's son
— this stockman, mail-rider and probably bush-
ranger and thief — as the long-lost son and heir of
the ancient house of Tichborne of Titchborne. To
gain his own selfish ends this individual was ready

201

202 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

to rob a gentlewoman of her fair fame, to destroy
the peace of a great family who, to free themselves
from a persecution, as cruel as it was vicious, had to
be pilloried before a ruthless and unsympathising
mob, to have the privacy of their home invaded, and
to hear their women's names banded from one
coarse mouth to another. Thus, and through no
fault of their own, they were compelled to endure a
mental torture far worse than any physical suffer-
ing, besides having to expend vast sums of money,
as well as time and labour, in order to protect them-
selves from the would-be depredations of an un-
scrupulous adventurer. It has been estimated that
the resistance of this fictitious claim cost the Tich-
borne estate not far short of one hundred thousand
pounds.

The baronetcy of Tichborne, now Doughty-Tich-
borne, is one of the oldest. It has been claimed
that the family held possession of the Manor of
Tichborne for two hundred years before the Con-
quest. Be this as it may — and, in the light of
J. H. Round's revelations, some scepticism as to
these pre-Xorman pedigrees is permissible — their
ancestors may be traced back to one Walter de
Tichborne who held the manor, from which he took
his name, as early as 1135. Their names too,
are interwoven with the history of the country.
Sir Benjamin, the first baronet — for the earlier
de Tichbornes were knights, — as Sheriff of South-
hampton, on the death of Queen Elizabeth, re-

Photo, by Maull & Fox.

Copyright.

ARTHUR ORTON

ARTHUR ORTON 203

paired instantly to Winchester and on his own in-
itiative proclaimed the accession of James VI of
Scotland as King of England, for which service he
was made a baronet, and his four sons received the
honour of knighthood. His successor, Sir Rich-
ard, was a zealous supporter of the Royal cause
during the civil wars. Sir Henry, the third bar-
onet, hazarded his life in the defence of Charles I
and had his estates sequestered by the Parliamen-
tarians though he was recompensed at the Resto-
ration.

Believers in occultism might see in the trials and
tribulations brought down upon the unfortunate
heads of the Tichborne family by the machinations
of the Claimant, the realisation of the doom pro-
nounced by a certain Dame Ticheborne away back
in the days of Henry II.

Sir Roger de Ticheborne of those days married
Mabell, the daughter and heiress of Ralph de Lam-
erston, of Lamerston, in the Isle of Wight, by
whom he acquired that estate. This good wife
played the part of lady bountiful of the neighbour-
hood. After a life spent in acts of charity and
goodness, as her end drew nigh and she lay on her
death bed, her thoughts went out to her beloved
poor. She begged her husband, that in order to
have her memory kept green the countryside round,
he would grant a bequest sufficient to ensure, once a
year, a dole of bread to all comers to the gates of
Tichborne. To gratify her whim Sir Roger prom-

204 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

ised her as much land as she could encompass while
a brand plucked from the fire should continue to
burn. As the poor lady had been bedridden for
years her husband may have had no idea that she
could, even if she would, take his promise seriously.
However, the venerable dame, after being carried
out upon the ground, seemed to regain her strength
in a miraculous fashion, and, to the surprise of all,
managed to crawl round several rich and goodly
acres which to this day are known as "the Crawls."

Carried to her bed again after making this last
supreme effort and summoning her family to her
bedside, Lady Ticheborne predicted with her dying
breath, that, as long as this annual dole was con-
tinued, so long should the house of Tichborne pros-
per; but, should it be neglected, their fortunes
would fail and the family name become extinct
from want of male issue. As a sure sign by which
these disasters might be looked for, she foretold
that a generation of seven sons would be immedi-
ately followed by one of seven daughters.

The benevolent custom thus established was faith-
fully observed for centuries. On every Lady Day
crowds of humble folk came from near and far to
partake of the famous dole which consisted of hun-
dreds of small loaves. But ultimately the occasion
degenerated into a noisy merry-making, a sort of
fair, until it was finally discontinued in 1796, ow-
ing to the complaints of the magistrates and local
gentry that the practice encouraged vagabonds,

ARTHUR ORTON 205

gipsies and idlers of all sorts to swarm into the
neighbourhood under pretence of receiving the dole.

Strangely enough Sir Henry Tichborne, the
baronet of that day (the original name of de Tiche-
borne had by this time been reduced to Tichborne) ,
had seven sons, while his eldest son who succeeded
him in 1821, had seven daughters. The extinction
of the family name, too, came to pass, for in the
absence of male issue, Sir Henry, the eighth bar-
onet, was succeeded by his brother, who had taken
the surname of Doughty on coming into the estates
bequeathed to him on these terms, by a distant rela-
tive, Miss Doughty; though, in after years, his
brother, who in turn succeeded him, obtained the
royal licence to couple the old family name with
that of Doughty. Following this repeated lapse
of direct male heirs came other troubles; but it is
to be hoped that the successful defeat of the fraudu-
lent claim of Arthur Orton set a period to the doom
pronounced long years ago by the Lady Mabell.

Most families, great and small, have their secret
troubles and unpleasantness, and the Tichbornes
seem to have had their share of them. To this may
be traced the actual, if remote, cause of the Claim-
ant's imposture. James Tichborne, afterwards the
tenth baronet, the father of the missing Roger, who
was drowned in the mysterious loss of the Bella, off
the coast of South America, in the spring of 1854,
lived abroad for many years; but, while his wife
was French in every sentiment, he himself from

206 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

time to time exhibited a keen desire to return to his
native land. When Roger was born there was
small likelihood of his ever succeeding to either
title or estates, and so his education was almost en-
tirely a foreign one.

Sir Henry Tichborne, who had succeeded in 1821,
though blessed with seven beautiful daughters, had
no son. Still there was their uncle Edward, who
had taken the name of Doughty, and he, after Sir
Henry, was the next heir. Edward, too, had a son
and daughter. But, one day, news came to James
and his wife, in France, that their little nephew
was dead; and with the possibilities which this
change opened up, it brought home to the father
the error he had committed in permitting Roger to
grow up ignorant of the English tongue and habits.
It was manifest that Mr. James F. Tichborne was
not unlikely to become the next baronet, and he
felt it his bounden duty to make good his previous
neglect, by providing his son with an English edu-
cation, such as would fit him for his probable posi-
tion as head of the house of Tichborne. In this
praiseworthy intention he met with strong opposi-
tion from his wife whose great aim it was to see
her son grow up a Frenchman. To her, France
was the only land worth living in. She cared
nought for family traditions; her dream was that
her darling boy should marry into some distin-
guished family in France or Italy. If he was to
enter the army, then it should be in some foreign

ARTHUR ORTON 207

service. But to England he should not go if she
could prevent it.

James Tichborne, like many weak men with self-
willed wives, put off the inevitable day as long as
he could; and in the end only achieved his purpose
by strategy. Roger was sixteen years of age when
news arrived of the death of Sir Henry. Naturally
James arranged to be present at his brother's
funeral and it was only reasonable that he should
be accompanied by his son Roger, whom everyone
now regarded as the heir. Accordingly the boy
took leave of his mother, but under the solemn in-
junction to return quickly. However, his father
had determined otherwise. After attending the
funeral of his uncle, at the old chapel at Tichborne,
Roger was, by the advice of relatives and friends,
and with the consent of the boy himself, taken down
to the Jesuit College at Stonyhurst. When Mrs.
Tichborne learned of this step, her fury knew no
bounds. She upbraided her husband violently ; and
there was a renewal of the old scenes in the Tich-
borne establishment. Roger wrote his mother
filial, if ill-spelt, letters in French; but, for a year,
the son, though ardently looking for a letter, got
no token of affection from the incensed and in-
dignant lady.

During his three years' stay at Stonyhurst,
Roger seems to have applied himself diligently to
the study of English; but, though he made fair
progress, he was never able to speak it with as much

208 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

purity and command of words as when conversing
in French. In Latin, mathematics, and chemistry,
too, he contrived to make fair headway; while his
letters evidenced an inclination for the study of
polite literature. If not highly accomplished, he
was of a refined and sensitive nature. During this
period he made many friends, spending his vaca-
tion with his English relatives in turn. His great
delight was to stay at Tichborne, then in possession
of his father's brother, Sir Edward Doughty.
Withal, the shy, pale-faced boy steadily gained in
favour, for he had a nature which disarmed ill-feel-
ing. As time wore on it became necessary to de-
termine on some profession for the lad; and need-
less to say his father's choice of the army added
fuel to the fire of his wife's anger. After some
delay a commission was obtained and Mr. Roger
Charles Tichborne was gazetted a coronet in the
Sixth Dragoons, better known as the Carbineers.

Defeated in her purpose of making a Frenchman
of her boy, Roger's mother yet continued to harp
upon her old desire to marry him to one of the
Italian princesses of whom he had heard so much.
But Roger had other ideas, for he had fallen pas-
sionately in love with his cousin — Miss Katharine
Doughty afterwards Lady RadclifFe. However,
the course of love was not to run smooth. The
Tichbornes had always been Roman Catholic, and
the marriage of first cousins was discountenanced
by that church. Consequently when some little

ARTHUR ORTON 209

token incidentally revealed to the father the secret
and yet unspoken love of the young people, their
dream was rudely shattered.

That the girl warmly reciprocated her cousin's
affection was beyond question, and Lady Doughty
was certainly sympathetic though she took excep-
tion to certain of her nephew's habits. He was an
inveterate smoker besides drinking too freely.
These and other little failings seem to have aroused
some fear in her anxious mother's heart, though she
quite recognised the boy's kind disposition, and the
fact that he was truthful, honourable and scrupu-
lous in points of duty. Still she would not oppose
the wishes of the young lovers — except to the ex-
tent of pleading and encouraging Roger to master
his weaknesses. It was Christmas time in 1851
when the denoument came and the eyes of Sir Ed-
ward were opened to what was going on. He was
both vexed and angry, and was resolved that the en-
gagement should be broken off before it grew more
serious. One last interview was permitted to the
cousins and, this over, the young man was to leave
the house forever. The great hope of his life ex-
tinguished, there was nothing left for Roger but
to rejoin his regiment, then expecting orders for
India, and to endeavour to forget the past. Still
even in those dark days neither Roger nor Kate
quite gave up hope of some change. Lady
Doughty, despite her dread of her nephew's habits,
had a warm regard for him, and could be relied

210 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

upon to plead his cause; and in a short time cir-
cumstances unexpectedly favoured him. Sir Ed-
ward was ill and, fearing that death was approach-
ing, he sent for his nephew and revived the subject.
He explained that if it were not for the close rela-
tionship he should have no objection to the marriage
and begged Roger to wait for three years. If then
the affection, one for the other, remained unaltered,
and providing that Roger obtained his own father's
consent and that of the Church, he would accept
things as the will of God and agree to the union.
As might be expected, Roger gratefully promised
loyally to observe the sick man's wishes.

However, Sir Edward, instead of dying, slowly
mended, and Roger returned to his regiment. Oc-
casionally he would spend his leave with his aunt
and uncle, when the young people loved to walk
together in the beautiful gardens of Tichborne ex-
changing sweet confidences and weaving plans for
the future. On what proved to be his last visit to
his ancestral home, in the midsummer of 1852,
Roger, to comfort his cousin, confided a secret to
ner — a CO py of a vow, which he had written out
and signed, solemnly pledging himself, in the event
of their being married before three years had
passed, to build a church or chapel at Tichborne as
a thanks offering to the Holy Virgin for the pro-
tection shown by her in praying God that their
wishes might be fulfilled.

His leave up, Roger went back to his regiment

ARTHUR ORTON 211

more than ever a prey to his habitual melancholy.
To his great regret the orders for the Carbineers
to go to India were countermanded. He accord-
ingly determined to throw up his commission and
travel abroad until his period of probation had
passed. South America had long been the subject
of his dreams, and so thither he would make his
way; and in travelling through that vast continent
he hoped to find occupation for his mind and so get
through the trying period of waiting. His plan
was to spend a year in Chili, Guayaquil and Peru,
and thence to visit Mexico, and so, by way of the
United States, to return home. Having come to
this resolution he lost no time in putting it into ex-
ecution. Being of business-like habits he made his
will, in which he purposely omitted any mention of
the "church or chapel." This secret had already
been committed to paper, and with other precious
souvenirs of his love for his cousin, had been con-
fided to his most trusted friend — Mr. Gosford, the
steward of the family estate. After paying a
round of farewell visits to his parents and old
friends in Paris, Roger finally set sail from Havre,
on March 21, 1853, in a French vessel named La
Pauline, for Valparaiso, at which port she arrived
on the 19th of the following June, when Roger set
out on his wanderings. During his travels Roger
continued to write home regularly; but the first
news he received was bad. Sir Edward Doughty
had died almost before the Pauline had lost sight

212 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

of the English shores; and Roger's father and
mother were now Sir James and Lady Tichborne.

Presently the wanderer began to retrace his steps,
making his way to Rio de Janeiro. Here, he found
a vessel called the Bella hailing from Liverpool,
about to sail for Kingston, Jamaica, and as he had
directed his letters and remittances to be forwarded
there, he prevailed upon the captain to give him a
passage. On the 20th of April, 1854, the Bella
passed from the port of Rio into the ocean. From
that day no one ever set eyes upon her. Six
days after she left harbour, a ship traversing
her path found, amongst other ominous tokens
of a wreck, a capsized long-boat bearing the name
"Bella,, Liverpool."

These were taken into Rio and forthwith the
authorities caused the neighbouring seas to be
scoured in quest of survivors; but none were ever
found. That the Bella had foundered there was
little room to doubt. It was supposed that she had
been caught in a sudden squall, that her cargo had
shifted, and that, unable to right herself, the vessel
had gone down in deep water, giving but little
warning to those on board. In a few months the
sad news reached Tichborne, where the absence of
letters from the previously diligent correspondent
had already raised grave fears. The sorrow-
stricken father caused enquiries to be made in
America and elsewhere. For a time, there was a
faint hope that some one aboard the Bella might

ARTHUR ORTON 213

have been picked up by some passing vessel ; but, as
months wore on, even these small hopes dwindled
away. The letters which poor Roger had so anx-
iously asked might be directed to him at the post
office, Kingston, Jamaica, remained there till the
ink grew faded; the banker's bill which lay at the
agents' remained unclaimed. At last the unfortu-
nate vessel was finally written off at Lloyd's as
lost, the insurance money paid, and gradually the
Bella faded from the memories of all but those who
had lost friends or relatives in her. Lady Tich-
borne alone, refused to abandon hope.

Her obstinate disregard of such conclusive evi-
dence of the fate of her unfortunate son preyed
upon her mind to such an extent as to make her an
easy victim for any scheming rascal pretending to
have news of her lost son; and "sailors," who told
all sorts of wild stories of how some of the survivors
of the Bella had been rescued and landed in a for-
eign port, became constant visitors at Tichborne
Park and profited handsomely from the weak-
minded lady's credulity. Sir James, himself, made
short work of these tramping "sailors," but after
his death, in 1862, the lady became even more ready
to be victimised by their specious lies.

Firm in her belief that Roger was still alive,
Lady Tichborne now caused advertisements to be
inserted in numerous papers; and in November,
1865, she learnt through an agency in Sydney that
a man answering the description of her son had been

214 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

found in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. A
long correspondence ensued, the tone and character
of which ought to have put her on her guard ; but,
over-anxious to believe that she had indeed found
her long-lost son, any wavering doubts she may
have had, were swept from her mind by the evidence
of an aged negro servant named Boyle, an old pen-
sioner of the Tichborne family. Boyle, who lived
in New South Wales, professed to recognise the
Claimant as his dear young master, and he certainly
remained one of his most devoted adherents to the
end. Undoubtedly this man's simplicity proved a
very valuable asset to Orton. His intimate knowl-
edge of the arrangements of Tichborne Park was
pumped dry by his new master, who, aided by a
most tenacious memory, was afterwards able to use
the information thus obtained with startling effect.
As to the identity of the Claimant with Arthur
Orton there can be absolutely no doubt. As a re-
sult of the enquiries made by the trustees of the
Tichborne estate nearly the whole of his history was
unmasked. He was born, in 1834, at Wapping
where his father kept a butcher's shop. In 1848 he
took passage to Valparaiso, whence he made his
way up country to Melipilla. Here he stayed some
eighteen months receiving much kindness from a
family named Castro, and it was their name he went
under at Wagga Wagga. In 1851 he returned
home and entering his father's business became an
expert slaughterman. The following year he emi-

ARTHUR ORTON 215

grated to Australia; but after the spring of 1854 he
ceased to correspond with his family. He had evi-
dently led a life of hardship and adventure — prob-
ably not unattended with crime, and certainly with
poverty. At Wagga Wagga he carried on a small
butcher's business, and it was from here that he got
into communication with Lady Tichborne just
after his marriage to an illiterate servant girl.

According to his subsequent confession, until his
attention was drawn to the advertisement for the
missing Roger, he had never even heard of the name
of Tichborne, and it was only his success when,
by way of a joke upon a chum, he claimed to be the
missing baronet, that led him to pursue the matter
in sober earnest. Indeed he seemed at first very
reluctant to leave Australia, and probably he was
only driven to accede to Lady Tichborne's request,
to return "home" at once, by the fact that he had
raised large sums of money on his expectations.
His original intention was probably to obtain some
sort of recognition, and then to return to Australia
with whatever money he had succeeded in collect-
ing.

After wasting much time he left Australia and
arrived in England, by a very circuitous route, on
Christmas Day, 1866. His first step on landing, it
was subsequently discovered, was to make a mys-
terious visit to Wapping. His parents were dead,
but his enquiries showed a knowledge, both of the
Orton family and the locality, which was after-

216 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

wards used against him with very damaging ef-
fect. His next proceeding was to make a flying
and surreptitious excursion to Tichborne House,
where, as far as possible, he acquainted himself with
the bearings of the place. In this he was greatly
assisted by one Rous, a former clerk to the old
Tichborne attorney, who was then keeping a public
house in the place. From this man, who became
his staunch ally, he had no doubt acquired much
useful information; and it is significant that he
sedulously kept clear of Mr. Gosford, the agent to
whom the real Roger had confided his sealed packet
before leaving England.

Lady Tichborne was living in Paris at this time
and it was here, in his hotel bedroom, on a dark
January afternoon, that their first interview took
place for, curiously enough, the gentleman was too
ill to leave his bed ! The deluded woman professed
to recognise him at once. As she sat beside his bed,
"Roger" keeping his face turned to the wall, the
conversation took a wide range, the sick man show-
ing himself strangely astray. He talked to her of
his grandfather, whom the real Roger had never
seen; he said he had served in the ranks; referred
to Stonyhurst as Winchester ; spoke of his suffering
as a lad from St. Vitus's dance — a complaint which
first led to young Arthur Orton being sent on a
sea voyage; but did not speak of the rheumatism
from which Roger had sufTered. But it was all
one to the infatuated woman — "He confuses every-

ARTHUR ORTON 217

thing as if in a dream," she wrote in exculpating
him; but unsatisfactory as this identification was,
she never departed from her belief. She lived
under the same roof with him for weeks, accepted
his wife and children, and allowed him £1,000 a
year. It did not weigh with her that the rest of
the family unanimously declared him to be an im-
postor, or that he failed to recognise them or to
recall any incident in Roger's life.

Nearly four years elapsed before the Claimant
commenced his suit of ejectment against the trus-
tees of the infant Sir Alfred Tichborne— the post-
humous son of Roger's younger brother; but he
utilised the time to good purpose. He had taken
into his service a couple of old Carbineers who had
been Roger's servants and before long so com-
pletely mastered small details of regimental life that
some thirty of Roger's old brother-officers and men
were convinced of his identity. He went every-
where, called upon all Roger's old friends, visited
the Carbineers' mess and generally left no stone un-
turned to get together evidence in support of his
identity. As a result of his strenuous activity and
plausibility he produced at the first trial over one
hundred witnesses who, on oath, identified him as
Roger Tichborne; and these witnesses included
Lady Tichborne, the family solicitor, magistrates,
officers and men from Roger's old regiment be-
sides various Tichborne tenants and friends of the
family. On the other hand, there were only seven-

218 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

teen witnesses arraigned against him; and, in his
own opinion, it was his own evidence that lost him
the case. He would have won, he said, "if only-
he could have kept his mouth shut."

The trial of this action lasted 102 days. Ser-
geant Ballantine led for the Claimant; and Sir
John Coleridge (afterwards Lord Chief-justice),
and Mr. Hawkins, Q. C. (afterwards Lord Bramp-
ton), for the trustees of the estates of Tichborne.
The cross-examination of the Claimant at the hands
of Sir John Coleridge lasted twenty-two days,
during which the colossal ignorance he displayed
was only equalled by his boldness, dexterity and the
bull-dog tenacity with which he faced the ordeal.
To quote Sir John's own words : "The first sixteen
years of his life he has absolutely forgotten ; the few
facts he had told the jury were already proved, or
would hereafter be shown, to be absolutely false and
fabricated. Of his college life he could recollect
nothing. About his amusements, his books, his
music, his games, he could tell nothing. Not a
word of his family, of the people with whom he
lived, their habits, their persons, their very names.
He had forgotten his mother's maiden name; he
was ignorant of all particulars of the family estate ;
he remembered nothing of Stonyhurst; and in mili-
tary matters he was equally deficient. Roger, born
and educated in France, spoke and wrote French
like a native and his favourite reading was French
literature; but the Claimant knew nothing of

ARTHUR ORTON 219

French. Of the 'sealed' packet he knew nothing
and, when pressed, his interpretation of its contents
contained the foulest and blackest calumny of the
cousin whom Roger had so fondly loved. This was
proved by Mr. Gosford, to whom the packet had
been originally entrusted, and by the production
of the duplicate which Roger had given to Miss
Doughty herself. The physical discrepancy, too,
was no less remarkable ; for, while Roger, who took
after his mother was slight and delicate, with nar-
row sloping shoulders, a long narrow face and thin
straight dark hair, the Claimant was of enormous
bulk, scaling over twenty-four stone, big-framed
and burly, with a large round face and an abun-
dance of fair and rather wavy hair. And yet, curi-
ously enough, the Claimant undoubtedly possessed
a strong likeness to several male members of the
Tichborne family."

When questioned as to the impressive episode of
Roger's love for his cousin, the Claimant showed
himself hopelessly at sea. His answers were con-
fused and irreconcilable. Not only could he give
no precise dates, but even the broad outline of the
story was beyond him. Yet, for good reasons, the
Solicitor-General persisted in pressing him as to the
contents of the sealed packet and compelled him to
repeat the slanderous version of the incident which
he had long ago given when interrogated on the
point. Mrs. Radcliffe (she was not then Lady)
sat in court beside her husband, and thus had the

220 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

satisfaction of seeing the infamous charges brought
against the fair fame of her girlhood recoil on the
head of the wretch who had resorted to such vil-
lainous devices. Unfortunately, some years after
Roger's disappearance, Mr. Gosford, feeling that
he was neither justified in keeping the precious
packet, nor in handing it to any other person, had
burnt it; but, fortunately his testimony as to its
contents was proved in the most complete manner
by the production of the duplicate which poor
Roger had given to his cousin on his last visit to
Tichborne.

Where the case broke down most completely was
in the matter of tattoo marks. Roger had been
freely tattooed. Among other marks he bore, on
his left arm, a cross, an anchor, and a heart which
was testified to by the persons who had pricked them
in. Orton, too, it was found out, had also been
tattooed on his left arm with his initials, "A. O.,"
and, though neither remained, there was a mark
which was sworn to be the obliteration of those let-
ters. Small wonder then that, on the top of this
damning piece of evidence, the jury declared they
required to hear nothing further, upon which the
Claimant's counsel, to avoid the inevitable verdict
for their opponents, elected to be nonsuited. But
these tactics did not save their client, for he was at
once arrested, on the judge's warrant, on the charge
of wilful and corrupt perjury, and committed to

ARTHUR ORTON 221

Newgate where he remained until bail for £10,000
was forthcoming.

A year later, on April 23, 1873, the Claimant
was arraigned before a special jury in the Court
of Queen's Bench. The proceedings were of a
most prolix and unusual character. Practically
the same ground was covered as in the civil trial,
only the process was reversed : the Claimant having
now to defend instead of to attack. Many of the
better-class witnesses, including the majority of
Roger's brother-officers, now forsook the Claimant.
There was a deal of cross-swearing. The climax
of the long trial was the production by the defence
of a witness to support the Claimant's account of
his wreck and rescue. This was a man who called
himself Jean Luie and claimed to be a Danish sea-
man. With a wealth of picturesque detail he told
how he was one of the crew of the Osprey which
had picked up a boat of the shipwrecked Bella, in
which was the claimant and some of the crew, and
how when the Osprey arrived at Melbourne, in the
height of the gold fever, every man of the crew
from the captain downwards had deserted the ship
and gone up country. According to his story from
that time forth he had seen nothing of any of the
castaways; but having come to England in search
of his wife he had heard of the trial. When Luie
was first brought into the presence of the Claimant
that astute person immediately claimed him with

222 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

the greeting in Spanish ee Como esta, Lute?" —
"How are you, Luie?" The sailor with equal
readiness recognised Orton as the man he had
helped to rescue years before. All this sounded
very convincing; but it would not stand investiga-
tion. From the beginning to end the thing was an
invention; an examination of shipping records
failed to find the Osprey so that she must have es-
caped the notice of the authorities in every port she
had entered from the day she was launched! Of
"Sailor" Luie, however, a very complete record was
established. Not only were the police able to prove
that, at the time he swore he was a seaman on board
the Osprey,, he was actually employed by a firm at
Hull; that he had never been a seaman at all; but
that he was a well-known habitual criminal and con-
vict only recently released on a ticket-of -leave.
This made tilings very awkward for the defence
who made every effort to shake free from the taint
of such perjured evidence. Dr. Kenealy, seeing
his dilemma, contended that it had been concocted
by Luie himself. But the damning and unanswer-
able fact remained — that, by his recognition of the
man, the Claimant had acknowledged a previous ac-
quaintance with him which he could only have had
by being privy to the fraud.

On February 28, 1874, the one hundred and
eighty-eighth day of the trial, the jury after half-
an-hour's deliberation returned their verdict.
They found that the defendant was not Roger

ARTHUR ORTON 223

Charles Tichborne; that he was Arthur Orton; and
finally that the charges made against Miss
Catherine Doughty were not supported by the
slightest evidence. Orton was sentenced to four-
teen years' penal servitude which, assuredly, was
none too heavy for offences so enormous. The
trial was remarkable, not only for its inordinate
length, but also for the extraordinary scenes by
which it was characterised and for which Dr.
Kenealy, leading counsel for the defence, was pri-
marily responsible. His conduct was sternly de-
nounced by the Lord Chief Justice in his summing
up as: "the torrent of undisguised and unlimited
abuse in which the learned counsel for the defence
has thought fit to indulge," and he declared that
"there never was in the history of jurisprudence a
case in which such an amount of imputation and in-
vective had been used before." After the trial was
over, Dr. Kenealy tried to turn the case into a na-
tional question through the medium of a virulent
paper he started with the title of the Englishman;
and undeterred by being disbarred for his flagrant
breaches of professional etiquette, he went about the
country delivering the most extravagant speeches
concerning the trial. He was elected Member of
Parliament for Stoke, and, on April 23, 1875,
moved for a royal commission of inquiry into the
conduct of the Tichborne Case ; but his motion was
defeated by 433 votes to 1.

The verdict and sentence created enormous ex-

224 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

citement throughout the country, for all classes,
more or less, had subscribed to the defence fund.
But, by the time Orton was released, in 1884, prac-
tically all interest had died away, and his effort to
resuscitate it was a miserable failure. In the
sworn confession which he published in the People,
in 1895, he told the whole story of the fraud from
its inception to its final denouement. Orton sur-
vived his release from prison for fourteen years,
but gradually sinking into poverty, he died in ob-
scure lodgings in Shouldham Street, Marylebone,
on April 1, 1898. To the end he was a fraud and
impostor for, before his death, he is said to have
recanted his sworn confession, which nevertheless
bore the stamp of truth and was in perfect accord
with the information obtained by the prosecution,
while his coffin bore the lying inscription: "Sir
Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne; born 5th
January, 1829; died 1st April, 1898."

VII. WOMEN AS MEN

VII. WOMEN AS MEN

A. THE MOTIVE FOR DISGUISE

ONE of the commonest forms of imposture
— so common that it seems rooted in a
phase of human nature — is that of women
who disguise themselves as men. It is not to be
wondered at that such attempts are made; or
that they were made more often formerly when
social advancement had not enlarged the scope
of work available for women. The legal and
economic disabilities of the gentler sex stood
then so fixedly in the way of working oppor-
tunity that women desirous of making an hon- i
est livelihood took desperate chances to achieve (
their object. We have read of very many cases inj
the past; and even now the hum-drum of life is
broken by the fact or the echo of some startling rev-
elation of the kind. Only very lately the death of
a person who had for many years occupied a
worthy though humble position in London caused
a post-mortem sensation by the discovery that the
deceased individual, though looked on for about a
quarter of a century as a man, a widower, and the
father of a grown-up daughter, was in reality a
woman. She was actually buried under the name

227

228 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

of the man she had professed to be, Harry Lloyd.
It is not to be wondered at that in more stren-
uous times, when the spirit of adventure was less
curbed, and initial difficulties were less deadened
by convention, cases of concealment of sex were far
more numerous and more easily prolonged. In
an age of foreign wars, many existing barriers
against success in this respect were removed by
general laxity of social conditions. Perhaps I may
be allowed to say at the outset that, for my own
part, my mind refuses absolutely to accept that
which is generally alleged in each case, that the
male comrades of women concealing their proper
sex were, all through, ignorant of the true facts.
Human nature is opposed to such a supposition,
and experience bears out the shrewdness of nature.
On occasions, or even for a time, it is possible to
make such successful concealments. But when we
are told that a woman has gone through a whole
campaign or a prolonged voyage in all the over-
crowded intimacy of tent and bivouac or of cabin
and forecastle, without such a secret being sus-
pected or discovered, the narrator makes an over-
large draft on human credulity. That such com-
rades, and many of them, forbore to give away the
secret, no matter how it had come into their posses-
sion, we may well believe. Comradeship is a strong
factor in such matters, and it has its own loyalty,
which is never stronger than when the various per-
sons interested are held together by the knowledge

WOMEN AS MEN 229

of a common danger. But even to this there is a
contra; the whole spirit of romance, even when it
binds man to woman and woman to man, stands
side by side with love, affection, passion — call it
what you will — which opportunity can fan into
flame. Never more so than in the strenuous days
of fighting, when day and night are full of varying
fears — when the mad turmoil of working hours and
loneliness of the night forge new fetters for the
binding together of the sexes.

In real life, when a man or a woman tries to es-
cape from capture or the fear of it in the guise of
the opposite sex, it is a never-ending struggle to
sustain the role successfully. If this is so, when the
whole of the energies of mind and body are de-
voted in singleness of purpose to the task, how then
can the imposture be successfully prolonged when
the mind is eternally occupied with the pressing
things of the passing moments? There must in-
fallibly be moments of self -betrayal ; and there is
sufficient curiosity in the average person to insure
that the opportunities of such moments are not lost.
Be this as it may, we must in the first instance stick
to matters of fact; the record is our sheet-anchor.
After all, when we learn of a case where an im-
posture of the kind has been successfully carried
out, it is time enough to argue with convincing per-
spicacity that it should not have been possible.

As to record, there are quite sufficient cases to
convince any reader as to the fact that, allowing for

230 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

all possible error and wastage, there have been a
sufficient number undetected at the time of their
happening, and only made known by after-con-
fession and by the force of ulterior circumstances.
Whatever opinion we may form of the women who
carried out the venture, there is neither occasion nor
need to doubt the fact they were so carried out.
The consideration of a few cases culled from the
records of this class of successful imposture will
make this plain. It would be useless, if not impos-
sible, to make full lists of the names of women who
have passed themselves off as men in the fight-
ing world — soldiers and sailors, with side interests
such as piracy, duelling, highway robbery, etc.
Amongst the female soldiers are the names of
Christian Davis (known as Mother Ross), Hannah
Snell, Phoebe Hessel. Amongst the sailors those
of Mary Talbot, Ann Mills, Hannah Whitney,
Charles Waddell. In the ranks of the pirates are
Mary Reid and Ann Bonney. In many of these
cases are underlying romances, as of women mak-
ing search for lost or absconding husbands, or of
lovers making endeavours to regain the lost para-
dise of life together.

If there were nothing else in these little histories,
their perusal in detail would well repay attention
as affording proof of the boundless devotion of
woman's love. No matter how badly the man may
have treated the woman, no matter how heartlessly
or badly he may have behaved towards her, her af-

WOMEN AS MEN 231

f ection was proof against all. Indeed it makes one
believe that there is some subtle self-sustaining,
self -ennobling quality in womanhood which her
initial self -surrender makes a constant force to-
wards good. Even a nature which took new
strength from the turmoil of battle, from the har-
rowing suspense of perpetual vigil, from the strain
of physical weakness bravely borne, from pain and
want and hunger, instead of hardening into obsti-
nate indifference, seems to have softened as to
sentiment, and been made gentle as to memory, as
though the sense of wrong had been purged by the
forces of affliction. All this, though the stress of
campaigning may have blunted some of the conven-
tional susceptibility of womanhood. For the after
life of some of these warlike heroines showed that
they had lost none of the love of admiration which
marks their sex, none of their satisfaction in posing
as characters other than their own. Several of
them found pleasure in a new excitement differ-
ent from that of battle, in the art of the stage.
Whenever any of them made any effort to settle
down in life after their excitement in the lif e of the
camp or the sea, such did so at some place, and
in some way congenial to herself and consistent
with the life which she was leaving.

B. HANNAH SNELL.

Hannah Snell is a good instance of how the life
of a woman who was not by nature averse from ad-

232 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

venture was moulded by chance in the direction
which suited her individuality. Of course, liking
for a militant life, whether in conventional or ex-
ceptional form, presupposes a natural boldness of
spirit, resolution, and physical hardihood — all of
which this woman possessed in an eminent degree.
She was born at Worcester in 1723, one of the
family of a hosier who had three sons and six
daughters. In 1740, when her father and mother
were dead, she went to live at Wapping with a sis-
ter who had married a ship carpenter named Gray.
There she married a Dutch sailor, who before her
baby was born, had squandered such little property
as her father had left her, and then deserted her.
She went back to her sister, in whose house the baby
died. In 1743, she made up her mind to search
for her husband. To this end she put on man's
clothes and a man's name (that of her brother-in-
law) and enlisted in General Guise's regiment. At
Carlisle, whither the regiment was sent she learned
something of a soldier's duties. In doing so she
was selected by her sergeant, a man called Davis,
to help him in carrying out a criminal love affair.
In order to be able to warn the girl she pretended
acquiescence. In revenge the sergeant reported
her for an alleged neglect of some duty for which
according to the barbarous system of the time she
was sentenced to 600 lashes ; of these she had actu-
ally received 500 when on the intervention of some
of the officers the remaining hundred were fore-

WOMEN AS MEN 233

gone. After this, fearing further aggression on
the part of the revengeful petty officer she de-
serted. She walked all the way to Portsmouth —
a journey which occupied a whole month — where
she again enlisted as a marine in Eraser's regiment,
which was shortly ordered on foreign service to the
East Indies. There was a storm on the way out,
during which she worked manfully at the pumps.
When the ship had passed Gibraltar there was an-
other bad storm in which she was wrecked. Han-
nah Snell found her way to Madeira and thence to
the Cape of Good Hope. Her ship joined in the
taking of Arcacopong on the Coromandel Coast;
in which action Hannah fought so bravely that she
was praised by her officers. Later on she assisted
in the siege of Pondicherry which lasted nearly
three months before it had to be abandoned. In the
final attempt she served on picket duty and had to
ford, under fire, a river breast high. During the
struggle she received six bullets in the right leg,
five in the left leg, and one in the abdomen. Her
fear was not of death but discovery of her sex
through the last-named wound. By the friendly
aid of a black woman, however, she avoided this
danger. She managed to extract the bullet her-
self, with her finger and thumb, and the wound
made a good cure. This wound caused her a delay
of some weeks during which her ship had to leave;;
for Bombay and was delayed five weeks by a leak.
Poor Hannah was again unfortunate in her officers ;

234 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

one of them to whom she had refused to sing had
her put in irons and given a dozen lashes. In 1749
she went to Lisbon, where she learned by chance
that her husband had met at Genoa the death
penalty by drowning, for a murder which he had
committed. Discovery of her sex and her identity
would have been doubly dangerous now; but hap-
pily she was able to conceal her alarm and so es-
caped detection. She got back to London through
Spithead and once more found shelter in the house
of her sister who at once recognised her in spite of
her disguise. Her fine singing voice, which had
already caused her to be flogged, now stood her in
good stead. She applied for and obtained an en-
gagement at the Royalty theatre, Wellclose square ;
and appeared with success as Bill Bobstay a sailor
and Firelock a soldier. She remained on the stage
for some months, always wearing male dress. The
government of the day gave her, on account of the
hardships she had endured, a pension of £20 per
annum. Later on she took a public-house at Wap-
ping. The sign of her hostelry became noted.
On one side of it was painted in effigy The British
Tar and on the other The Valiant Marine, and un-
derneath The Widow in masquerade, or the Female
Warrior.

As Hannah appeared during her adventurous
career as both soldier and sailor she affords, in her-
self, an illustrious example of female courage as
well as female duplicity in both of the services.

WOMEN AS MEN 235

C. LA MAUPIN.

The majority of the readers of the English-
speaking race who enjoy Theophile Gautier's
fascinating romance Mademoiselle de Maupin
are not aware that the heroine was a real per-
son. The novelist has of course made such
alterations as are required to translate crude
fact into more elegant fiction, and to obliterate so
far as can be done the criminal or partly-criminal
aspect of the lady's venturous career. But such is
one of the chief duties of an artist in fiction.
Though he may be an historian, in a sense, he is not
limited to the occasional bareness of truth. His
object is not that his work shall be true but rather
what the French call vraisemblable. In narrative,
as in most arts, crudeness is rather a fault than a
virtue, so that the writer who looks for excellence
in his work has without losing force, to fill up the
blanks left by the necessary excision of fact by sub-
tleties of thought and graces of description, so that
the fulness or rotundity of the natural curves shall
always be maintained. In truth the story of La
Maupin is so laden with passages of excitement
and interest that any writer on the subject has only
to make an agreeable choice of episodes sufficiently
dramatic, and consistent with each other, to form a
cohesive narrative. Such a work has in it possi-
bilities of great success — if only the author has the
genius of a Theophile Gautier to set it forth. The

236 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

real difficulty which such an one would have to con-
tend against would be to remove the sordidness, the
reckless passion, the unscrupulousness, the criminal
intent which lies behind such a character.

The Mademoiselle de Maupin of real life was a
singer at the Opera in Paris at the end of the
seventeenth century. She was the daughter of a
man of somewhat humble extraction engaged in
secretarial work with the Count d'Armagnac; and
whilst only a girl married a man named Maupin
employed in the province. With him she had lived
only a few months when she ran away with a
maitre d'armes (anglice, a fencing master) named
Serane. If this individual had no other good qual-
ity in matters human or divine, he was at least a
good teacher of the sword. His professional arts
were used in the service of his inamorata, who be-
came herself an excellent swordsman even in an age
when swordsmanship had an important place in
social life. It may have been the sexual equality
implied by the name which gave the young woman
the idea, but thenceforth she became a man in ap-
pearance; — in reality, in so far as such a meta-
morphosis can be accomplished by courage, reck-
lessness, hardihood, unscrupulousness, and a willing
obedience to all the ideas which passion and sensual-
ity can originate and a greed of notoriety carry into
execution.

In a professional tour from Paris to Marseilles,
in which she as an actress took the part of a man,

WOMEN AS MEN 237

she gained the affections of the flighty daughter of
a rich merchant of Marseilles; and, as a man, ran
away with her. Being pursued, they sought ref-
uge in a convent — a place which at that age it was
manifestly easier to get into than to get out of.
Here the two remained for a few days, during
which, by the aid of histrionic and other arts, the
actress obviated the necessary suspicions of her
foolish companion and kept danger away. All the
while La Maupin was conscious that an irate and
rich father was in hot search for his missing daugh-
ter, and she knew that any talk about the venture
would infallibly lose her the girl's fortune, besides
getting herself within the grip of the law. So she
decided on a bold scheme of escape from the con-
vent, whereby she might obliterate her tracks. A
nun of the convent had died and her body was
awaiting burial. In the night La Maupin ex-
changed the body of the dead nun for the living one
of her own victim. Having thus got her compan-
ion out of the convent, she set the building on fire
to cover up everything, and escaped in secret to a
neighbouring village, taking with her by force the
girl, who naturally enough was disillusioned and
began to have scruples as to the wisdom of her con-
duct. In the village they remained hidden for a
few weeks, during which time the repentance of the
poor girl became a fixed quantity. An attempt,
well supported, was made to arrest the ostensible
man; but this was foiled by the female swordsman

238 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

who killed one of the would-be captors and danger-
ously wounded two others. The girl, however,
made good her escape ; secretly she fled from her de-
ceiver and reached her parents in safety. But the
hue and cry was out after La Maupin, whose
identity was now known. She was pursued, cap-
tured, and placed in gaol to await trial. The law
was strong and inexorable; the erring woman who
had thus outraged so many conventions was con-
demned to be burned alive.

But abstract law and the executive are quite dif-
ferent things — at least they were in France at the
close of the seventeenth century: as indeed they are
occasionally in other countries and at varying times.
La Maupin, being a woman and a clever one, pro-
cured sufficient influence to have the execution post-
poned, and so had the full punishment delayed, if
not entirely avoided. More than this, she man-
aged to get back to Paris and so to begin her nox-
ious career all over again. Of course she had
strong help from her popularity. She was a fa-
vourite at the opera, and the class which patronises
and supports this kind of artistic effort is a rich
and powerful one, which governments do not care
to displease by the refusal of such a small favour
as making the law hold its hand with regard to an
erring favourite.

But La Maupin's truculent tendencies were not
to be restrained. In Paris in 1695 whilst she was
one of the audience at a theatre she took umbrage

WOMEN AS MEN 239

at some act or speech of one of the comedians play-
ing in the piece, and leaving her seat went round
to the stage and caned him in the presence of the
audience. The actor, M. Dumenil, an accom-
plished and favourite performer but a man of
peaceful disposition, submitted to the affront and
took no action in the matter. La Maupin, how-
ever, suffered, through herself, the penalty of her
conduct. She had entered on a course of violence
which became a habit. For some years she flour-
ished and exercised all the tyrannies of her own sex
and in addition those habitual to men which came
from expert use of the sword. Thus she went at-
tired as a man to a ball given by a Prince of the
blood. In that garb she treated a fellow-guest, a
woman, with indecency ; and she was challenged by
three different men — each of whom, when the con-
sequent fight came on, she ran through the body,
after which she returned to the ball. Shortly after-
wards she fought and wounded a man, M. de
Servan, who had affronted a woman. For these
escapades she was again pardoned. She then went
to Brussels where she lived under the protection of
Count Albert of Bavaria, the Elector. With him
she remained until the quarrel, inevitable in such a
life, came. After much bickering he agreed to her
demand of a settlement, but in order to show his
anger by affronting her he sent the large amount
of his involuntary bequest by the servile hand of
the husband of his mistress, Countess d'Arcos, who

240 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

had supplanted her, with a curt message that she
must leave Brussels at once. The bearer of such a
message to such a woman as La Maupin had prob-
ably reckoned on an unfriendly reception; but he
evidently underestimated her anger. Not con-
tented with flinging at his head the large douceur
of which he was the bearer, she expressed in her
direct way her unfavourable opinion, of him, of his
master, and of the message which he had carried
for the latter. She ended her tirade by kicking
him downstairs, with the justification for her form
of physical violence that she would not sully her
sword with his blood.

From Brussels she went to Spain as femme de
chambre to the Countess Marino but returned to
Paris in 1704. Once more she took up her work
as an opera singer ; or rather she tried to take it up,
but she had lost her vogue, and the public would
have none of her. As a matter of fact, she was
only just above thirty years of age, which should
under normal circumstances be the beginning of a
woman's prime. But the life she had been leading
since her early girlhood was not one which made for
true happiness or for physical health; she was pre-
maturely old, and her artistic powers were worn out.

Still, her pluck, and the obstinacy on which it
was grafted, remained. For a whole year she
maintained a never-failing struggle for her old su-
premacy, but without avail. Seeing that all was

WOMEN AS MEN 241

lost, she left the stage and returned to her husband
who, realising that she was rich, managed to recon-
cile whatever shreds of honour he had to her in-
famous record. The Church, too, accepted her —
and her riches — within its sheltering portals. By
the aid of a tolerant priest she got absolution, and
two years after her retirement from the opera she
died in a convent in all the odour of sanctity.

D. MARY EAST

The story of Mary East is a pitiful one,
and gives a picture of the civil life of the
eighteenth century which cannot be lightly for-
gotten. The condition of things has so changed
that already we almost need a new terminology in
order that we may understand as our great-grand-
fathers did. Take for instance the following sen-
tence and try individually how many points in it
there are, the full meaning of which we are unable
to understand :

"A young fellow courted one Mary East, and for
him she conceived the greatest liking; but he going
upon the highway, was tried for a robbery and cast,
but was afterwards transported."

The above was written by an accomplished
scholar, a Doctor of Divinity, rector of an English
parish. At the time of' its writing, 1825, every
word of it was entirely comprehensible. If a

242 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

reader of that time could see it translated into mod-
ern phraseology he would be almost as much sur-
prised as we are when we look back upon an age
holding possibilities no longer imaginable.

"Going upon the highway" was in Mary East's
time and a hundred years later a euphemism for
becoming a highway robber; "cast" meant con-
demned to death; "transported" meant exiled to a
far distant place where one was guarded, and es-
cape from which was punishable with death.
Moreover robbery was at this time a capital of-
fence.

In 1736, when Mary East was sixteen, life was
especially hard on women. Few honest occupa-
tions were open to them, and they were subject to
all the hardships consequent on a system in which
physical weakness was handicapped to a frightful
extent. When this poor girl was bereft of her nat-
ural hope of a settlement in life she determined, as
the least unattractive form of living open to her, to
remain single. About the same time a friend of
hers arrived at the same resolution but by a differ-
ent road, her course being guided thereto by hav-
ing "met with many crosses in love." The two
girls determined to join forces; and on consulting
as to ways and means decided that the likeliest way
to avoid suspicion was to live together under the
guise of man and wife. The toss of a coin decided
their respective roles, the "breeches part" as it is
called in the argot of the theatre, falling to East.

WOMEN AS MEN 243

The combined resources of the girls totalled some
thirty pounds sterling, so after buying masculine
garb for Mary they set out to find a place where
they were unknown and so might settle down in
peace. They found the sort of place they sought
in the neighbourhood of Epping Forest where,
there being a little public-house vacant, Mary —
now under the name of James How — became the
tenant. For some time they lived in peace at Ep-
ping, with the exception of a quarrel forced by a
young gentleman on the alleged James How in
which the latter was wounded in the hand. It must
have been a very one-sided affair, for when the in-
jured "man" took action he was awarded £500
damages — a large sum in those days and for such
a cause. With this increase to their capital the two
women moved to Limehouse on the east side of Lon-
don where they took at Limehouse-hole a more im-
portant public-house. This they managed in so ex-
cellent a manner that they won the respect of their
neighbours and throve exceedingly.

After a time they moved from Limehouse to
Poplar where they bought another house and added
to their little estate by the purchase of other houses.

Peace, hard work, and prosperity marked their
life thence-forward, till fourteen years had passed
since the beginning of their joint venture.

Peace and prosperity are, however, but feeble
guardians to weakness. Nay, rather are they in-
centive to evil doing. For all these years the two

244 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

young women had conducted themselves with such
rectitude, and observed so much discretion, that
even envy could not assail them through the web of
good repute which they had woven round their mas-
querade. Alone they lived, keeping neither
female servant nor male assistant. They were
scrupulously honest in their many commercial deal-
ings and, absolutely punctual in their agreements
and obligations. James How took a part in the
public life of his locality, filling in turn every parish
office except those of Constable and Churchwarden.
From the former he was excused on account of the
injury to his hand from which he had never com-
pletely recovered. Regarding the other his time
had not yet come, but he was named for Church-
warden in the year following to that in which a
bolt fell from the blue, 1730. It came in this wise :
A woman whose name of coverture was Bently,
and who was now resident in Poplar, had known the
alleged James How in the days when they were
both young. Her own present circumstances were
poor and she looked on the prosperity of her old ac-
quaintance as a means to her own betterment. It
was but another instance of the old crime of "black-
mail." She sent to the former Mary East for a loan
of £10, intimating that if the latter did not send it
she would make known the secret of her sex. The
poor panic-stricken woman foolishly complied with
the demand, thus forcing herself deeper into the
mire of the other woman's unscrupulousness. The

WOMEN AS MEN 245

forced loan, together with Bently's fears for her
own misdeed procured immunity for some fifteen
years from further aggression. At the end of that
time, however, under the renewed pressure of need
Bently repeated her demand. "James How" had
not the sum by her, but she sent £5— another link
in the chain of her thraldom.

From that time on there was no more peace for
poor Mary East. Her companion of nearly thirty-
five years died and she, having a secret to guard
and no assistance being possible, was more helpless
than ever and more than ever under the merciless
yoke of the blackmailer. Mrs. Bently had a fair
idea of how to play her own despicable game. As
her victim's fear was her own stock-in-trade she
supplemented the sense of fear which she knew to
exist by a conspiracy strengthened by all sorts of
schemes to support its seeming bona fides. She
took in two male accomplices and, thus enforced,
began operations. Her confederates called on
James How, one armed with a constable's staff, the
other appearing as one of the "thief -takers" of the
gang of the notorious magistrate, Fielding — an
evil product of an evil time. Having confronted
How they told him that they had come by order of
Mr. Justice Fielding to arrest him for the com-
mission of a robbery over forty years before, alleg-
ing that they were aware of his being a woman.
Mary East, though quite innocent of any such of-
fence but acutely conscious of her imposture of

246 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

manhood, in her dismay sought the aid of a friend
called Williams who understood and helped her.
He went to the magistrates of the district and then
to Sir John Fielding to make inquiries and claim
protection. During his absence the two villains
took Mary East from her house and by threats se-
cured from her a draft on Williams for £100.
With this in hand they released their victim who
was even more anxious than themselves not to let
the matter have greater publicity than it had al-
ready obtained. However, Justice demanded a
further investigation, and one of the men being
captured — the other had escaped — was tried, and
being found guilty, was sentenced to imprisonment
for four years together with four appearances in
the pillory.

Altogether Mary East and her companion had
lived together as husband and wife for nearly
thirty-five years, during which time they had hon-
estly earned, and by self-denial saved, over four
thousand pounds sterling and won the good opinion
of all with whom they had come in contact. They
were never known to cook a joint of meat for their
own use, to employ any help, or to entertain private"
friends in their house. They were cautious, care-
ful, and discreet in every way and seemed to live
their lives in exceeding blamelessness.

VIII. HOAXES, ETC

VIII. HOAXES, ETC.

THERE is a class of imposture which must
be kept apart from others of its kind, or at
least ear-marked in such wise that there
can be no confusion of ideas regarding it. This in-
cludes all sorts of acts which, though often attended
with something of the same result as other efforts
to mislead, are yet distinguished from them by in-
tention. They have — whatever may be their re-
sults — a jocular and humorous intention. Such
performances are called hoaxes. These, though
amusing to their perpetrators and to certain sport-
ive persons, and though generally causing a due
amount of pain and loss to those on whom they are
inflicted, usually escape the condign and swift pun-
ishment which they deserve. It is generally held
that humour, like charity, covereth a multitude of
sins. So be it. We are all grateful for a laugh
no matter who may suffer.

A. TWO LONDON HOAXES

Not many years ago, in one of the popular
dairy-refreshment shops in Holborn, the prim
manageress and her white-capped waitresses
were just commencing their day's work when
a couple of sturdy green-aproned men swooped

249

250 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

down on the place from a large pantechnicon
van, and to the amazement of the young ladies
commenced to clear the shop.

"There you are Bill. Hand up them chairs, and
look slippy."

"Right o', mate."

"Good gracious me, what are you men doing?"
shrieked the alarmed manageress.

"Doing, miss, doing? Why moving the furni-
ture. This is the lot ain't it?"

"No, no, no; there must be some mistake. You
must have come to the wrong place."

"Mistake, wrong place? No miss. 'Ere, look
where's that letter?" And Jack placed a begrimed
document before the lady.

The letter seemed right enough. It read beauti-
fully, a plain direction to clear the shop and remove
the stuff elsewhere; it only lacked the official head-
ing of the company. But the joint inspection was
rudely broken in upon by the arrival of a couple of
the knights of the brush who had come "to do the
chimbley, maam" ; and ere they could be disposed of
vans of coals began to draw up, more pantechni-
cons, more sweeps, loads of furniture, butchers with
prime joints, plump birds from the poulterers, fish
of every conceivable kind, noisy green-grocer boys,
staggering under huge loads of vegetables ; florists
"to decorate," gasfitters, carpenters "to take down
the counter, miss" ; others "to put it up."

HOAXES 251

Pandemonium is quiet compared with that shop.
The poor manageress was in tears, deafened with
the exasperated, swearing representatives of, ap-
parently, all the tradesmen for miles around. The
thing had been well done. No sooner had the pro-
vision merchants worked clear and the streams of
vans, waggons and carts been backed away to the
accompaniment of much lurid language, than ladies
began to arrive with boxes of mysterious long
garments which, they assured the indignant lady
in charge, they were instructed were urgently
needed for an event they referred to as "interest-
ing." There was no monotony, for fast and furi-
ous — very furious sometimes — came other maidens
laden with more boxes and still more boxes, filled
with costumes, bonnets, and other creations dear to
the feminine mind. Then came servants "in an-
swer to your advertisement, madam." They
flocked in from all directions, north, south, east and
west. Never was seen such a concourse of serv-
ants: dignified housekeepers, housemaids, parlour-
maids, and every other sort of maid, seemed to be
making for that unfortunate manageress. Sleek-
looking butlers popped in, as uniformed nurses
popped out. Window-cleaners had to be torn from
the windows they insisted they had got orders to
clean; carpet beaters sought carpets which did not
exist. Never had mortal — aye and immortal — re-
quirements been thought out with more thoughtful
care. From the needs of the unborn baby, to the

252 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

"poor departed one," whom melancholy gentlemen
in seedy black came to measure, all were remem-
bered, and the man for whose especial benefit pre-
sumably were intended beautiful wreaths, crosses,
harps, etc., which kept constantly arriving.
Throughout that live-long day to the "dewy eve"
beloved of the poet the game went merrily on.

As a hoax the thing was worked for all it was
worth. Not only had shoals of letters evidently
been sent out, but advertisements, too, had been
freely distributed among the press. Needless to
say that, despite the closest investigations, its
author or authors, discreetly silent, remained un-
known.

The joke was not new by any means. Well
nigh a century before mischief-loving Theodore
Hook had stirred all London by a similar prank —
the famous Berners Street Hoax. In those days
Berners Street was a quiet thoroughfare inhabited
by fairly well-to-do families. Indeed it was this
very sedate quietness which drew upon it Hook's
unwelcome attention. Fixing on one of the houses,
which happened to be adorned with a brass plate, he
made a wager with a brother wag that he would
cause that particular house to become the talk of the
town : and he certainly did — for not only the town,
but all England shrieked with laughter when the re-
sult of his little manoeuvre became known.

One morning, soon after breakfast, waggons
laden with coals began to draw up before the house

HOAXES 253

with the brass plate, No. 54. These were quickly
succeeded with tradespeople by the dozen with vari-
ous commodities. These in turn were followed by
van loads of furniture ; followed by a hearse with a
coffin and a number of mourning coaches. Soon
the street became choked : for, what with the goods
dumped down as near as possible to the house —
pianos, organs, and cart loads of furniture of all
descriptions, the anxious tradesmen, and the laugh-
ing mob of people quickly attracted to the scene,
confusion reigned supreme. About this time the
Lord Mayor and other notabilities began to arrive
in their carriages. His Lordship's stay was short.
He was driven to Marlborough Street police office
where he informed the magistrate that he had
received a note purporting to come from Mrs. T.,
the victimised widow resident at No. 54, saying she
was confined to her room and begging his lordship
to do her the favour of calling on her on impor-
tant business. Meanwhile, the trouble in Berners
Street was growing serious, and officers belonging
to the Marlborough Street office were at once sent
to keep order. For a time even they were helpless.
Never was such a strange meeting: barbers with
wigs; mantlemakers with band-boxes; opticians
with their various articles of trade. Presently
there arrived a couple of fashionable physicians, an
accoucheur, and a dentist. There were clockmak-
ers, carpet manufacturers and wine merchants, all
loaded with specimens of their trade; brewers with

254 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

barrels of ale, curiosity dealers with sundry knick-
knacks; cartloads of potatoes; books, prints, jew-
ellery, feathers and furbelows of all kinds ; ices and
jellies; conjuring tricks; never was such a conglom-
eration. Then, about five o'clock servants of all
kinds began to troop in to apply for situations.
For a time the police officers were powerless.
Vehicles were jammed and interlocked; the exas-
perated drivers were swearing, and the disap-
pointed tradesmen were maddened by the malicious
fun of the crowd who were enjoying the joke.
Some of the vans were overturned and many of the
tradesmens' goods came to grief ; while some of the
casks of ale became the prey of the delighted spec-
tators. All through the day and late into the night
this extraordinary state of things continued, to the
dismay and terror of the poor lady and the other in-
mates of the house with the brass plate.

Theodore Hook had taken precautions to secure
a good seat for the performance, having taken fur-
nished-apartments just opposite the house of his
victim, where he posted himself with one or two
companions to enjoy the scene. Hook's connection
with the mad joke was, fortunately for him, not
known until long afterwards; it seems he had de-
voted three or four whole days to writing the let-
ters, all couched in ladylike style. In the end the
novelist seems to have been rather frightened at
the result of his little joke, for he made a speedy
departure to the country; and there is no doubt

HOAXES 255

that, had he been publicly known as its author, he
would have fared badly.

B. THE CAT HOAX

One very amusing variation of the countless
imitations, which the success of this trick gave
rise to, was the "cat hoax" at Chester, in August,
1815. It was at the time when it had been
determined to send Napoleon to St. Helena.
One morning, a number of hand bills were dis-
tributed in and around Chester, stating that, owing
to the island of St. Helena being invested with rats,
the government required a number of cats for de-
portation. Sixteen shillings were offered for
"every athletic full-grown torn cat, ten shillings for
every adult female puss, and a half-crown for
every thriving kitten that could swill milk, pursue
a ball of thread, or fasten its young fangs in a
dying mouse." An address was given at which
the cats were to be delivered; but it proved to be
an empty house. The advertisement resulted in
the victimisation of hundreds of people. Men,
women, and children streamed into the city from
miles around laden with cats of every description.
Some hundreds were brought in, and the scene be-
fore the door of the empty house is said to have
baffled description. When the hoax was discov-
ered many of the cats were liberated ; the following
morning no less than five hundred dead cats were
counted floating down the river Dee.

256 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

C. THE MILITARY REVIEW

Practical jokes of this nature have more than
once led to serious results. In the summer of
1812 a report was extensively circulated that
a grand military review was to be held on the
19th of June. Booths were erected and as many
as twenty thousand people assembled, despite
the efforts of the authorities who, when they
learned what was happening, posted men in the
several roads leading to the heath to warn the peo-
ple that they had been hoaxed. But their efforts
were useless. The rumour was believed and the
contradiction ignored; vehicles, horsemen and
pedestrians pushed on to their destination. When,
however, the day wore on without any appearance
of the promised military pageant, the crowd grew
angry and then broke out in acts of violence. The
heath was set on fire. Messengers were sent off
express to London, and a detachment of the guards
had to be marched down to quell the mob. In the
disorder one poor woman was thrown out of a chaise
and picked up in an unconscious condition.

D. THE TOLL-GATE

Many distinguished actors have been very
fond of playing practical jokes and perpetra-
ting hoaxes. Young, the tragedian, was one
day driving in a gig with a friend on the out-
skirts of London. Pulling up at a turn-pike

HOAXES 257

gate he noticed the name of the toll-collector
written up over the door. Calling to him the
woman, the wife of that functionary, who appeared
to be in charge of the gate, he politely told her that

he particularly wished to see Mr. , naming the

toll-collector, on a matter of importance. Im-
pressed by Young's manner, she promptly sent for
her husband, who was working in a neighbouring
field. Hastily washing himself and putting on a £>*A «-
clean coat he presented himself. The actor gravely Ja^aaJlm
said: "I paid for a ticket at the last gate, and was ®i
told that it would free me through this one. As I
wish to be scrupulously exact, will you kindly tell #< A i"
me whether such is the case?" "Why of course it ^

is?" "Can I then pass through without paying?" -%%£,
The toll-collector's reply and his vituperation as
the travellers passed on had better, perhaps, be left
to the imagination.

E. THE MARRIAGE HOAX

Hoaxes are sometimes malicious, and often
cruel, as the following instance will show: A
young couple were about to be married in
Birmingham when those officiating — it was a
Jewish wedding — were startled by the delivery
of a telegram from London with the message:
"Stop marriage at once. His wife and children
have arrived in London and will come on to Bir-
mingham." The bride fainted and the bridegroom
was frantically perturbed at thus summarily being

258 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

provided with a wife and family. But it was use-
less ; the unhappy man had to make the best of his
way through an exasperated crowd full of sym-
pathy for the wronged girl. Inquiry, however,
showed her friends that the whole thing was a hoax
— possibly worked by some revengeful rival of the
man whose happiness had been so unexpectedly
deferred.

F. BURIED TREASURE

Most people have heard of the "Spanish Treas-
ure swindle" and, though less elaborate than the
original, a variation of it practised on a French
merchant was rather "cute." One morning he
received an anonymous communication advising
him that a box of treasure was buried in his
garden the exact position of which would be
pointed out to him, if he agreed to divide the
spoil. He rose at once to the bait, met his
generous informant, and before long the pair were
merrily at work with pickaxe and shovel. Sure
enough before long their exertions were awarded
by the unearthing of a box full of silver coins.
The hoard proved to consist of sixteen hundred
five-franc pieces ; and the delighted merchant, after
carefully counting them out into two piles, offered
one lot to his partner as his share. That worthy,
after contemplating the heap for a minute or two,
observed that it would be rather a heavy load to
carry to the railway station, and said he would pre-

HOAXES 259

fer, if it could be managed, to have the amount in
gold or notes. "Certainly, certainly!" was the
reply. The two men walked up to the house and
the business was settled to their mutual satisfac-
tion. Twenty-four hours later, the merchant took
a very different view of the transaction ; for exami-
nation discovered there was not one genuine five-
franc piece among the whole lot.

G. DEAN SWIFT'S HOAX

One of the most beautiful hoaxes ever per-
petrated was one for which Swift was responsible.
He caused a broad-sheet to be printed and cir-
culated which purported to be the "last dying
speech" of one Elliston, a street robber, in
which the condemned thief was made to say:
"Now as I am a dying man, I have done some-
thing which may be of use to the public. I have
left with an honest man — the only honest man I
was ever acquainted with — the names of all my
wicked brethren, the places of their abode, with a
short account of the chief crimes they have commit-
ted, in many of which I have been their accomplice,
and heard the rest from their own mouths. I have
likewise set down names of those we call our setters,
of the wicked houses we frequent, and all of those
who receive and buy our stolen goods. I have
solemnly charged this honest man, and have received
his promise upon oath, that whenever he hears of
any rogue to be tried for robbery or housebreaking,

260 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

he will look into his list, and if he finds the name
there of the thief concerned, to send the whole paper
to the Government. Of this I here give my com-
panions fair and public warning, and hope they will
take it." So successful, we are told, was the Dean's
ruse that, for many years afterwards, street rob-
beries were almost unknown.

H. HOAXED BURGLARS

The above ingenious device recalls another
occasion when some gentlemen who made bur-
glary their profession, and who had been pay-
ing a midnight visit to the house of a Hull
tradesman were sadly "sold." They found the
cash-box lying handy, and, to their delight, weighty ;
so heavy indeed that they did not stay to help them-
selves to anything further. Next morning the
cash-box was found not far from the shop and its
contents in an ash-pit close by. After all the
trouble they had taken, to say nothing of the risks
they had run, the burglars found their prize con-
sisted only of a lump of lead, and that their intended
victim had been too artful for them.

I. BOGUS SAUSAGES

As an example of how a dishonest penny may
be turned the following incident would be hard to
beat.

Two wear}'- porters at the King's Cross terminus
of the Great Northern Railway were thinking

HOAXES 261

about going home, when a breathless, simple-look-
ing countryman rushed up to them with anxious
enquiries for a certain train. It had gone. He
was crushed. "Whatever was he to do? He had
been sent up from Cambridge with a big hamper
of those sausages for which the University town is
celebrated — a very special order. Was there no
other train?" "No." The poor fellow seemed
overwhelmed. "As it is too late to find another
market," he complained, "the whole lot will be lost."
Then a happy thought seemed to strike him as more
of the railway men gathered round, and he inquired
ingratiatingly, "Would you care to buy the sau-
sages ; if you would, you could have them for four-
pence a pound? If I keep them, they will prob-
ably go bad before I can dispose of them." The
idea took — "Real Cambridge Sausages" at four-
pence a pound was not to be sneezed at. The
dainties, neatly packed in pounds, went like the
proverbial hot cakes. Shouldering the empty
basket, and bidding his customers a kindly good-
night, the yokel set off to find a humble lodging
for the night. Grateful smiles greeted the pur-
chasers when they got home. Frying pans were
got out and the sausages were popped in, and never
was such a sizzling heard in the railway houses — or
rather never should such a sizzling have been heard.
But somehow they didn't sizzle. "They are uncom-
mon dry ; seem to have no fat in 'em," said the puz-
zled cook. They Mere dry, very dry, for closer

262 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

investigation showed that the "prime Cambridge"
were nothing but skins stuffed with dry bread!
The railway staff of King's Cross were long anx-
ious to meet that simple countryman from Cam-
bridge.

J. THE MOON HOAX

One of the most stupendous hoaxes, and one
foisted on the credulity of the public with the
most complete success, was the famous Moon
Hoax which was published in the pages of
the New York Sun in 1835. It purported to be
an account of the great astronomical discoveries of
Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope,
through the medium of a mighty telescope, a single
lens of which weighed nearly seven tons. It was
stated to be reproduced from the Supplement to
the Edinburgh Journal of Science, though as a
matter of fact, the Journal had then been defunct
some years. In graphic language, and with a
wealth of picturesque detail, the wonders of the
Moon as revealed to the great astronomer and his
assistants were set forth. A great inland sea was
observed, and "fairer shores never angel coasted on
a tour of pleasure." The beach was "of brilliant
white sand, girt with wild castellated rocks appar-
ently of green marble, varied at chasms, occurring
every two hundred feet, with grotesque blocks of
chalk or gypsum, and feathered and festooned at
the summit with the clustering foliage of unknown

HOAXES 263

trees." There were hills of amethysts "of a diluted
claret colour"; mountains fringed with virgin gold;
herds of brown quadrupeds resembling diminutive
bison fitted with a sort of "hairy veil" to protect
their eyes from the extremes of light and darkness ;
strange monsters — a combination of unicorn and
goat; pelicans, cranes, strange amphibious crea-
tures, and a remarkable biped beaver. The last
was said to resemble the beaver of the earth ex-
cepting that it had no tail and walked only upon
its two feet. It carried its young in its arms like
a human-being, and its huts were constructed better
and higher than those of many savage tribes; and,
from the smoke, there was no doubt it was
acquainted with the use of fire. Another remark-
able animal observed, was described as having an
amazingly long neck, a head like a sheep, bearing
two spiral horns, a body like a deer, but with its
fore-legs disproportionately long as also its tail
which was very bushy and of a snowy whiteness,
curling high over its rump and hanging two or
three feet by its side.

But even these marvels fade into insignificance
compared with the discovery of the lunarian men
"four feet in height, covered, except on the face,
with short and glossy copper-coloured hair, with
wings composed of a thin membrane." "In gen-
eral symmetry they were infinitely superior to the
orang-outang" — which statement could hardly have
been regarded as complimentary; and, though de-

264 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

scribed as "doubtless innocent and happy creatures,"
the praise was rather discounted by the mention
that some of their amusements would "but ill com-
port with our terrestrial notions of decorum." In
the "Vale of the Triads," with beautiful temples
built of polished sapphire, a superior race of the
punariant were found, "eminently happy and even
polite," eating gourds and red cucumbers; and fur-
ther afield yet another race of the vespertilio-homo,
or man-bat, were seen through the wonderful tele-
scope of "infinitely greater personal beauty . . .
scarcely less lovely than the general representation
of angels."

Such were a few of the marvels told of in the
Moon story; and, though one may laugh at them
as they stand, shorn of their clever verbiage and
quasi-scientific detail, at the time of publication they
were seriously accepted, for the popular mind, even
among the educated classes, was then imbued with
the fanciful anticipators of vast lunar discoveries
heralded in the astronomical writings of Thomas
Dick, LL.D., of the Union College of New York.
Scarcely anything could have been brought forward
too extravagant for the general credulity on the
subject then prevailing; and this well-timed satire,
"out-heroding Herod" in its imaginative creations,
supplied to satiety the morbid appetite for scien-
tific wonders then raging. >By its plausible display
of scientific erudition it successfully duped, with
few exceptions, the whole civilised world.

HOAXES 265

At the time, the hoax was very generally attrib-
uted to a French astronomer, M. Nicollet, a legit-
imist who fled to America in 1830. He was said to
have written it with the twofold object of raising
the wind, and of "taking in" Arago, a rival astron-
omer. But its real author was subsequently found
to be Richard Adams Locke, who declared that his
original intention was to satirise the extravagances
of Dick's writings, and to make certain sugges-
tions which he had some diffidence in putting for-
ward seriously. Whatever may have been his
object, the work, as a hit, was unrivalled. For
months the press of America and Europe teemed
with the subject; the account was printed and pub-
lished in many languages and superbly illustrated.
But, finally, Sir John Herschel's signed denial gave
the mad story its quietus.

IX. CHEVALIER D'EON,

IX. THE CHEVALIER D'EON

IN all the range of doubtful personalities there
is hardly any one whom convention has treated
worse than it has the individual known in his
time — and after — as The Chevalier d'Eon. For
about a hundred and fifty years he has been written
of — and spoken of for the first half century of
that time — simply as a man who masqueraded in
woman's clothes. There seems to be just sufficient
truth in this to save certain writers on the subject
from the charge of deliberate lying — a record which,
even if it is to be posthumous, no man of integrity
aims at; but it is abundantly evident that the
rumour, which in time became a charge, was orig-
inally set on foot deliberately by his political ene-
mies, who treated him and his memory without either
consideration or even the elements of honourable
truth. To begin with, here are the facts of his
long life.

Charles- Genevieve — Louis-Auguste-Andre —
Timothee d'Eon de Beaumont was born in 1728
in Tonnerre in Yonne, a department of France in
the old province of Burgundy. His father, Louis
d'Eon, was a parliamentary barrister. As a youth
he was so apt in his studies at the College Mazarin
that he received by special privilege his degree of

269

270 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Doctor in Canon and Civil Law before the age
appointed for the conferring of such honour, and
was then enrolled in the list of parliamentary bar-
risters in Paris. At first he had been uncertain
which department of life he should undertake. He
swayed on one side towards the church, on the other
towards the world of letters and beaux-arts. He
was by habit an athlete, and was so good a swords-
man that later on he had no rival in fencing except
the Chevalier de Saint-George. In his twenty-
fifth year he published two remarkable books. One
was on the political administration of ancient and
modern people, and the other on Phases of Finance
in France at different times. ( The latter was aft-
erwards published in German at Berlin in 1774, and
so impressed the then King of Prussia that he gave
orders that its ideas were to be carried into prac-
tical effect.)

In 1755 the Prince de Conti, to whose notice the
Chevalier had been brought by the above books,
asked the king (Louis XV) to send him to Russia
on a secret mission with the Chevalier Douglas;
and from that time till the king's death in 1774 he
was his trusted, loyal agent and correspondent.
D 'Eon's special mission was to bring the courts
of France and Rusisa closer than had been their
wont, and also to obtain for the Prince de Conti,
who was seeking the Dukedom of Finland and the
Kingship of Poland, the favour of the Empress
Elizabeth — a difficult task, which had already cost

THE CHEVALIER D'EON

THE CHEVALIER D'EON 271

M. de Valcroissant a spell of imprisonment. In
order to accomplish his mission, d'Eon disguised
himself as a woman, and in this guise he was able
to creep into the good graces of the Empress. He
became her "reader" and was thus enabled to pre-
pare her for the reception of the secret purposes of
his king. In the following year he returned to
France whence he was immediately sent again to
St. Petersburg with the title of Secretary of Em-
bassy. But this time he went in his man's clothes
and as the brother of the pretended female reader.
By this time he had been made a lieutenant of
dragoons. He came in spite of the Russian Chan-
cellor Bestuchef, who saw in the young soldier-
diplomat "un subject dangereux et capable de
boulverser Vempire." This time his real mission
was to destroy in the mind of the Empress faith
in Bestuchef, who was trying to hold the Russian
army inactive and so deprive France of the advan-
tages of the Treaty of Versailles. This he did so
well that he was in a position to prove to the Em-
press that her chancellor had betrayed her interests.
Bestuchef was arrested and his post conferred on
Count Woronzow, whose attitude was altogether
favourable to France. The gratitude of King
Louis was shewn by his making d'Eon a captain
of dragoons and conferring on him a pension of .
2400 livres ; he was also made censor of history and
literature. D'Eon threw himself with his accus-
tomed zeal into the service of the army and distin-

272 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

guished himself by his courage in the battles of
Hoecht ; of Ultrop, where he was wounded ; of Eim-
bech where he put the Scotch to flight; and of Os-
terkirk, where at the head of 80 dragoons and 20
hussars he overthrew a battalion of the enemy.

No better conventional proof of the accepted idea
of d'Eon's military worthiness can be given than
the frequency and importance of the occasions on
which he was honoured by the carrying of des-
patches. He brought news of his successful nego-
tiations for the peace of Versailles from Vienna in
1757. He was also sent with the Ratification of
the Treaty. He carried the despatches of the great
victory of the troops of Maria Theresa, forestalling
the Austrian courier by a day and a half, although
he had a broken leg.

When next sent to Russia, d'Eon was sent as
minister plenipotentiary, an office which he held up
to 1762 when to the regret of the Empress he was
recalled. When he was leaving, Woronzow, the
successor of Bestuchef, said to him, "I am sorry
you are going, although your first journey with
Chevalier Douglas cost my sovereign 250,000 men
and more than 5,000,000 roubles." D'Eon an-
swered: "Your excellency ought to be happy that
your sovereign and his minister have gained more
glory and reputation than any others in the world."
On his return d'Eon was appointed to the regi-
ment d'Autchamp and gazetted as adjutant to
Marshal de Broglie. Then he was sent to Russia

THE CHEVALIER D'EON 273

for the fourth time as minister plenipotentiary in
place of Baron de Breuteuil. But Peter III was
dethroned, so the out-going Ambassador remained
in Russia, and d'Eon went to England as secretary
to the Embassy of the Duke de Nivernais in 1762.

After the Peace of 1763 d'Eon was chosen by the
King of England to carry the despatches. He re-
ceived for this office the Star of St. Louis from
the breast of the king, who on giving it said it was
for the bravery which he had displayed as a soldier,
and for the intelligence which he had shown in the
negotiations between London and St. Petersburg.

At this time all went well with him. But his
good fortune was changed by the bitter intrigues of
his enemies. He was devoted to the king, but had,
almost as a direct consequence, the enmity of the
courtesans who surrounded him and wished for the
opportunity of plucking him at their leisure. He
had an astonishing knowledge on all matters of
finance, and apprised the king privately of secret
matters which his ministers tried to hide from him.
The Court had wind of that direct correspondence
with his majesty and therewith things were so man-
aged that the diplomatist got into trouble.
Madame de Pompadour surprised the direct cor-
respondence between the king and d'Eon, with the
result that the latter was persecuted by the jealous
courtiers who intrigued, until in 1765 he was
replaced at the Embassy of London by the
Count de Guerchy and he himself became the

274 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

mark for all sorts of vexations and persecutions.
His deadly enemy, the Count de Guerchy, tried
to have him poisoned, but the attempt failed.
D'Eon took legal steps to punish the attempt;
but every form of pressure was used to keep the
case out of Court. An attempt was made to
get the Attorney General to enter a nolle
prosequi; but he refused to lend himself to
the scheme, and sent the matter to the Court
of King's Bench. There, despite all the difficulties
of furthering such a charge against any one so pro-
tected as an ambassador, it was declared on trial
that the accused was guilty of the crime charged
against him. De Guerchy accordingly had to re-
turn to France; but d'Eon remained in England,
though without employment. To console him King
Louis gave him in 1766 a pension of 12,000 livres,
and assured him that though he was ostensibly ex-
iled this was done to cover up the protection
extended to him. D'Eon, according to the report
of the time, was offered a bribe of 1,200,000 livres,
to give up certain state papers then in his custody;
but to his honour he refused. Be the story as it
may, d'Eon up to the time of the death of Louis
(1774) continued to be in London the real repre-
sentative of France, though without any formal
appointment.

During this time one of the means employed with
success by his enemies to injure the reputation of
d'Eon, was to point out that he had passed himself

THE CHEVALIER D'EON 275

as a woman; the disguise he wore on his first visit
to Russia. His clean shaven face, his personal
niceties, the correctness of his life, all came to the
aid of that supposition. In England bets were
made and sporting companies formed for the pur-
pose of verifying his sex. Designs were framed
for the purpose of carrying him off in order to
settle the vexed question by a personal examination.
Some of the efforts he had to repel by violence.
In 1770 and in 1772 his friends tried to arrange
that he should be allowed to return to France; but
he refused all offers as the Ministers insisted on
making it a condition of his return that he should
wear feminine apparel. After the accession of
Louis XVI he obtained leave to return, free from
the embarrassing restraint hitherto demanded. As
he was overwhelmed with debts he placed as a
guarantee in the hands of Lord Ferrers an iron
casket containing important French state papers.
The minister sent Beaumarcheus to redeem them,
and in 1771 the Chevalier returned to France. He
presented himself at Versailles in his full uniform
of a captain of dragoons. The Queen (Marie
Antoinette) however, wished to see him presented
in female dress; so the Minister implored him to
meet her wishes. He consented ; and thenceforward
not only wore women's clothes but called himself
"La Chevaliere d'Eon." In a letter addressed by
him to Madame de Stael during the French revo-
lution he spoke of himself as "citizeness of the New

276 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Republic of France, and of the old Republic of
Literature." On 2nd September, 1777 he wrote
to the Count de Maurepas, "Although I detest
changes of costume, yet they are hard at work at
Mademoiselle Bertin's on my future and doleful
dress, which however I shall cut in pieces at the first
sound of the cannon shots." As a matter of fact
when war with England became imminent he de-
manded to be allowed to take in the army the posi-
tion which he had won by bravery and as the price
of honourable wounds. The only reply he got was
his immurement for two months in the Castle of
Dijon. In 1784 he returned to England, which he
never again left. In vain he appealed to the Con-
vention and then to the First Consul to be allowed
to place his sword at the service of his country; but
his prayer was not listened to. Used to the practice
of the sword, his circumstances being desperate, he
then found in it a source of income. He gave in
public, assaults-at-arms with the Chevalier de Saint-
George, one of the most notable fencers of his time.
At length he was given a small pension, £40, by
George III, on which he subsisted during the re-
mainder of his life. He died 23rd May, 1810.

In very fact Chevalier d'Eon is historically a
much injured man. His vocation was that of a
secret-service agent of a nation surrounded with
enemies, and to her advantage he used his rare pow-
ers of mind and body. He was a very gallant
soldier, who won distinction in the field and was

THE CHEVALIER D'EON 277

wounded several times; and in his endurance and
his indifference to pain whilst carrying despatches
of overwhelming importance he set an example that
any soldier might follow with renown. As a states-
man and diplomatist, and by the use of his faculties
of inductive ratiocination, he averted great dangers
from his country. If there were nothing else to his
credit he might well stand forth as a diplomatist
who had by his own exertions overthrown a dis-
honest Russian Chancellor and an unscrupulous
French Ambassador. Of course, as he was an
agent of secret service, he had cognisance of much
political and international scheming which he had
at times to frustrate at the risk of all which he held
dear. But, considering the time he lived in, and
the dangers which he was always in the thick of,
in a survey of his life the only thing a reader can
find fault with is his yielding to the base idea of
the flighty-minded Marie Antoinette. What, to
this irresponsible butterfly of fashion, was the hon-
our of a brave soldier or the reputation of an acute
diplomatist who had deserved well of his country.
Of course to her any such foolery as that to which
she condemned d'Eon was but the fancy of an idle
moment. But then the fancies of queens at idle
moments may be altogether destructive to someone.
That they may be destructive to themselves is shown
in the record of the terrible atrocities of the Revo-
lution which followed hard on the luxurious mas-
querades of Trianon and Versailles. Even to the

278 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Queen of France, the Chevalier d'Eon should have
been something of a guarded, if not an honoured,
person. He was altogether a "king's man." He
had been for many years the trusted and loyal serv-
ant of more than one king; and from the king's
immediate circle the proper consideration should
have been shown.

There is something pitiful in the spectacle of this
old gentleman of nearly eighty years of age, who
had in his time done so much, being compelled to
earn a bare livelihood by the exploitation of the
most sordid page in his history — a page turned more
than half a century before, and then only turned
at all in response to the call of public duty.

In his retirement d'Eon showed more of his real
nature than had been possible to him in the stren-
uous days when he had to be always vigilant and
ready at an instant's notice to conceal his intentions
— his very thoughts. Here he showed a sensitive-
ness with which even his friends did not credit him.
He had been so long silent as to matters of his own
concern that they had begun to think he had lost
the faculty not only of making the thought known,
but even of the thought itself. The following
paragraph from the London Public Advertiser of
Wednesday, 16th November, 1774, shows more of
the real man than may be found in any of his
business letters or diplomatic reports: —

"The Chevalier d'Eon with justice complains of
our public prints; they are eternally sending him to

THE CHEVALIER D'EON 279

France while he is in body and soul fixed in this
country; they have lately confined him in the Bas-
tille, when he fled to England as a country of
liberty; and they lately made a Woman of him,
when not one of his enemies dared to put his man-
hood to the proof. He makes no complaints of
the English Ladies."

In an issue of the same paper 9th November,
of the same year, it is mentioned that the lit. Hon.
Lord Ferrars, Sir John Fielding, Messrs. Adding-
ton, Wright and other worthy magistrates and
gentlemen and their ladies did the Chevalier d'Eon
the honour to dine with him in Brewer St., Golden
Square (common proof that the Chevalier d'Eon
is not confined in the Bastille). D'Eon was much
too wily and too much accustomed to attack to allow
diplomatic insinuations to pass unheeded. He was
now beginning to apply his garnered experience to
his own protection.

From the above extract of 16th November one
can note how the allegation as to his sex was begin-
ning to rankle in the soldier's mind, and how an
open threat of punishment is conveyed in diplomatic
form. Indeed he had reason to take umbrage at
the insinuation. More than once had attempts
been made to carry him off for the purpose of
settling bets by a humiliating personal scrutiny.
From something of the same cause his friends on
his death caused an autopsy to be made before sev-
eral witnesses of position and repute. Amongst

280 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

these were several surgeons including Pere Elisee,
First Surgeon to Louis XVIII. The medical cer-
tificate ran as follows :

"Je certifie, par le present, avoir inspecte le corps
du chevalier d'Eon, en presence de M. Adair, M.
Wilson et du Pere Elysee, et avoir trouve les
organs masculins parfaitement formes."

X. THE BISLEY BOY

X. THE BISLEY BOY

A. PROLEGOMENON

QUEEN ELIZABETH, the last of the
House of Tudor, died unmarried. Since
her death in 1603, there have been revolu-
tions in England due to varying causes, but all
more or less disruptive of family memories. The
son of James I had his head cut off, and after the
Commonwealth which followed, Charles I's son
James II, had to quit on the coming of William
III, by invitation. After William's death with-
out issue, Anne, daughter of James II, reigned
for a dozen years, and was succeeded by George I,
descended through the female line from James I.
His descendants still sit on the throne of England.

NO DESCENDANTS

The above facts are given not merely in the
way of historical enlightenment but rather as a sort
of apologetic prolegomenon to the ethical consid-
eration of the matter immediately before us. Had
Queen Elizabeth had any descendants, they need
not have feared any discussion of her claims of de-
scent. The issue of the legality of her mother's
marriage had been tried exhaustively both before

283

284 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

and after her own birth, and she held the sceptre
both by the will of her dead father and the consent
of her dead half-sister who left no issue. But Queen
Elizabeth, whatever her origin, would have been a
sufficient ancestor for any King or any Dynasty.
Still, had she left issue there might have been lesser
people, descendants, whose feelings in the matter
of personal and family pride would have required
consideration ; and no person entering on an analysis
of historical fact would have felt quite free-handed
in such an investigation.

B. THE QUEEN'S SECRET

There are quite sufficient indications throughout
the early life of Queen Elizabeth that there was
some secret which she kept religiously guarded.
Various historians of the time have referred to it,
and now and again in a way which is enlightening.

In a letter to the Protector Somerset in 1549,
when the Princess Elizabeth was 15, Sir Robert
Tyrwhitt says:

"I do verily believe that there hath been some secret promise
between my Lady, Mistress Ashley, and the Cofferer" [Sir
Thomas Parry] never to confess to death, and if it be so, it
will never be gotten of her, unless by the King's Majesty or
else by your Grace."

In his Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth Mr. Frank
A. Mumby writes of this: —

"Elizabeth was as loyal to Parry as to Mrs. Ashley; she re-
instated him after a year's interval, in his office as Cofferer,

THE BISLEY BOY 285

and on her accession to the throne she appointed him Con-
troller of the royal household. She continued to confer prefer-
ment upon both Parry and his daughter to the end of their lives
— "conduct," remarks Miss Strickland, "which naturally in-
duces a suspicion that secrets of great moment had been con-
fided to him — secrets that probably would have touched not
only the maiden name of his royal Mistress, but placed her
life in jeopardy, and that he had preserved these inviolate.
The same may be supposed with respect to Mrs. Ashley, to
whom Elizabeth clung with unshaken tenacity through every
storm."

Major Martin Hume in his Courtships of Queen
Elizabeth says of the favourable treatment of the
Governess and the Cofferer: —

"The confessions of Ashley and Parry are bad enough;
but they probably kept back more than they told, for on
Elizabeth's accession and for the rest of their lives, they were
treated with marked favour. Parry was knighted and made
Treasurer of the Household, and on Mrs. Ashley's death in
July 1565 the Queen visited her in person and mourned her
with great grief."

The same writer says elsewhere in the book :

"Lady Harrington and Mrs. Ashley were, in fact, the only
ladies about the Queen who were absolutely in her confi-
dence."

In a letter to the Doge of Venice in 1556 Gio-
vanni Michiel wrote :

"She" [Elizabeth] "I understand, having plainly said that
she will not marry, even were they to give her the King's"
[Philip of Spain] "son" [Don Carlos, Philip's son by his first

286 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

wife] "or find any other great prince, I again respectfully re-
mind your serenity to enjoin secrecy about this."

Count de Feria wrote in April, 1559:

"If my spies do not lie, which I believe they do not, for a
certain reason which they have recently given me, I under-
stand that she [Elizabeth] will not bear children."

At this time Elizabeth was only 26 years of age.

The following extract is taken from Mr. Mum-
by's Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth in which is given
the translation taken from Leti's La Vie d'Eliza-
beth. The letter is from Princess Elizabeth to
Lord Admiral Seymour, 1548 (apropos of his in-
tentions regarding her) : —

"It has also been said that I have only refused you because
I was thinking of some one else. I therefore entreat you, my
lord, to set your mind at rest on this subject, and to be per-
suaded by this declaration that up to this time I have not the
slightest intention of being married, and, that if ever I should
think of it {which I do not believe is possible) you would be
the first to whom I should make known my resolution."

C. BISLEY

The place known to the great public as Bisley
is quite other than that under present consideration.
Bisley, the ground for rifle competitions, is in Sur-
rey, thoughtfully placed in juxtaposition to an
eminent cemetery. It bears every indication of
newness — so far as any locality of old earth can be
new.

THE BISLEY BOY 287

But the other is the original place of the name,
possessing a recorded history which goes back many-
hundreds of years. It is in Gloucestershire high
up on the eastern side of the Cotswold Hills at their
southern end where they rise above the Little Avon
which runs into the embouchure of the Severn to
the Bristol Channel. The trace of Roman occupa-
tion is all over that part of England. When the
pioneers of that strenuous nation made their essay
on Britain they came with the intention of staying ;
and to-day their splendid roads remain unsurpassed
— almost unsurpassable. In this part of the West
Country there are several of them, of which the
chief are Irmin (or Ermine) Street, running from
Southampton through Cirencester and Gloucester
to Caerleon, and Ikenild Street running from
Cirencester, entering Gloucestershire at Eastleach.
I am particular about these roads as we may require
to notice them carefully. There is really but one
Bisley in this part of the country, but the name is
spelled so variously that the simple phonetic spell-
ing might well serve for a nucleating principle.
In all sorts of papers, from Acts of Parliament
and Royal Charters down to local deeds of tenancy,
it is thus varied — Bisleigh, Bistlegh, Byselegh, Bus-
sely. In this part of the Cotswolds "Over" is a
common part of a name which was formerly used
as a prefix. Such is not always at once apparent
for the modern cartographer seems to prefer the
modern word "upper" as the prefix. Attention is

288 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

merely called to it here as later on we shall have
to consider it more carefully.

The most interesting spot in the whole district
is the house "Overcourt," which was once the
manor-house of Bisley. It stands close to Bisley
church from the grave-yard of which it is only sep-
arated by a wicket-gate. The title-deeds of this
house, which is now in possession of the Gordon
family show that it was a part of the dower of
Queen Elizabeth. But the world went by it, and
little by little the estate of which it was a portion
changed hands; so that now the house remains
almost as an entity. Naturally enough, the young
Princess Elizabeth lived there for a time; and one
can still see the room she occupied. A medium-
sized room with mullioned windows, having small
diamond-shaped panes set in lead after the pattern
of the Tudor period. A great beam of oak, not
exactly "trued" with the adze but following the
natural trend of the wood, crosses the ceiling. The
window looks out on a little walled-in garden, one
of the flower beds of which is set in an antique stone
receptacle of oblong shape which presents some-
thing of the appearance of a stone coffin of the
earlier ages. Of this more anon.

Whether at the time of the birth of Elizabeth
the mansion of Overcourt was itself in the King's
possession is a little difficult to fathom, for, in the
Confession of Thomas Parry written in 1549 con-
cerning a period a little earlier, it is said: "And I

THE BISLEY BOY 289

told her" [Princess Elizabeth] "further how he"
[Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour] "would have
had her to have lands in Gloucestershire called Bis-
ley as in parcel of exchange, and in Wales."

In addition to its natural desirability in the way;
of hygiene and altitude there seems to have been
a wish on the part of family advisers of those hav-
ing estates in the vicinity of this place, to enlarge
their possessions. This was wise enough, for in
the disturbed state of affairs which ushered in the
Tudor Dynasty, and the effects of which still con-
tinued, it was of distinct benefit to have communities
here and there large enough for self protection.
This idea held with many of the families as well
as individuals whose names are associated with Bis-
ley. Henry VIII himself, as over-lord with own-
ership derived from the Norman Conquest, had
feudal claims on the de Bohuns who represented
all the local possessions of the Dukedom of Glou-
cester and the Earldoms of Essex Hereford and
Northampton. Also the greedy eyes of certain
strong men and families who had hopes that time
and influence already existing, might later on bring
them benefit, were fixed on this desirable spot.
Thomas Seymour, the unscrupulous brother of the
future Lord Protector, was high in influence in the
early days of the Princess Elizabeth, and even then
must have had ambitious designs of marrying her.
On the death of Henry VIII he had, when Lord
Sudeley, married the king's widow within a few

290 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

months of her widowhood, and received a grant of
the royal possession at Bisley which, on his attainder,
passed on to Sir Anthony Kingston, who doubtless
had already marked it down as an objective of his
cupidity.

The "Hundred of Bisley" was one of the seven
of Cirencester which of old were farmed by the
Abbey of Tewksbury. Its position was so full of
possibilities of future development as to justify the
acquisitive spirit of those who desired it. In its
bounds were what is now the town of Stroud, as
well as a whole line of mills which had in early
days great effect as they were workable by both
wind and water power, both of which were to be had
in profusion. This little remote hamlet had a pro-
gressive industry of its own in the shape of a manu-
facture of woollen cloths. It also represented dye-
ing in scarlet and was the place of origin of Giles
Gobelin, a famous dyer who gave his name to the
Gobelin tapestry.

One other thing must be distinctly borne in mind
regarding Bisley in the first half of the sixteenth
century; it was comparatively easy of access from
London for those who wished to go there. A line
drawn on the map will show that on the way as
points d'appui, were Oxford and Cirencester, both
of which were surrounded with good roads as be-
came their importance as centres. This line seems
very short for its importance. To-day the jour-
ney is that of a morning; and even in the time of

THE BISLEY BOY 291

He^nry VIII when horse traction was the only kind
available, the points were not very distant as to time
of traverse. To Henry, who commanded every-
thing and had a myriad agents eager to display
their energy in his service, all was simple ; and when
he went a-hunting in the forests which made a net-
work far around Berkeley Castle his objective
could be easily won between breakfast and supper.
There was not any difficulty therefore, and not too
much personal strain, when he chose to visit his
little daughter even though at the start one should
be at Nether Lypiat and the other at Greenwich
or Hatfield or Eltham.

D. THE TRADITION

The Tradition is that the little Princess Eliza-
beth, during her childhood, was sent away with her
governess for change of air to Bisley where the
strong sweet air of the Cotswold Hills would brace
her up. The healthy qualities of the place were
known to her father and many others of those
around her. Whilst she was at Overcourt, word
was sent to her governess that the King was com-
ing to see his little daughter; but shortly before
the time fixed, and whilst his arrival was expected
at any hour, a frightful catastrophe happened. The
child, who had been ailing in a new way, developed
acute fever, and before steps could be taken even
to arrange for her proper attendance and nursing,
she died. The governess feared to tell her father —

292 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

Henry VIII had the sort of temper which did not
make for the happiness of those around him. In
her despair she, having hidden the body, rushed off
to the village to try to find some other child whose
body could be substituted for that of the dead prin-
cess so that the evil moment of disclosure of the sad
fact might be delayed till after His Majesty's de-
parture. But the population was small and no girl
child of any kind was available. The distracted
woman then tried to find a living girl child who
could be passed off for the princess, whose body
could be hidden away for the time.

Throughout the little village and its surround-
ings was to be found no girl child of an age reason-
ably suitable for the purpose required. More than
ever distracted, for time was flying by, she deter-
mined to take the greater risk of a boy substitute —
if a boy could be found. Happily for the
poor woman's safety, for her very life now
hung in the balance, this venture was easy
enough to begin. There was a boy available,
and just such a boy as would suit the special
purpose for which he was required — a boy well
known to the governess, for the little Princess had
taken a fancy to him and had lately been accus-
tomed to play with him. Moreover, he was a pretty
boy as might have been expected from the circum-
stance of the little Lady Elizabeth having chosen
him as her playmate. He was close at hand and
available. So he was clothed in the dress of the

THE BISLEY BOY 293

dead child, they being of about equal stature; and
when the King's fore-rider appeared the poor over-
wrought governess was able to breathe freely.

The visit passed off successfully. Henry sus-
pected nothing; as the whole thing had happened
so swiftly, there had been no antecedent anxiety.
Elizabeth had been brought up in such dread of
her father that he had not, at the rare intervals
of his seeing her, been accustomed to any affection-
ate effusiveness on her part ; and in his hurried visit
he had no time for baseless conjecture.

Then came the natural nemesis of such a decep-
tion. As the dead could not be brought back to
life, and as the imperious monarch, who bore no
thwarting of his wishes, was under the impression
that he could count on his younger daughter as a
pawn in the great game of political chess which
he had entered on so deeply, those who by now
must have been in the secret did not and could not
dare to make disclosure. Moreover the difficulties
and dangers to one and all involved would of neces-
sity grow with each day that passed. Willy nilly
they must go on. Fortunately for the safety of
their heads circumstances favoured them. The
secret was, up to now, hidden in a remote village
high up on the side of the Cotswold hills. Steep
declivities guarded it from casual intrusion, and
there was no trade beyond that occasional traffic
necessary for a small agricultural community. The
whole country as far as the eye could see was either

294 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

royal domain or individual property owned or held
by persons attached to the dynasty by blood or
interest.

Facilities of intercommunication were few and
slow; and above all uncertain and therefore not to
be relied on.

This then was the beginning of the tradition
which has existed locally ever since. In such dis-
tricts change is slow, and what has been may well
be taken, unless there be something to the contrary,
for what is. The isolation of the hamlet in the
Cotswolds where the little princess lived for a time
— and is supposed to have died — is almost best
exemplified by the fact that though the momentous
secret has existed for between three and four cen-
turies, no whisper of it has reached the great world
without its confines. Not though the original sub-
ject of it was the very centre of the wildest and
longest battle which has ever taken place since the
world began — polemical, dynastic, educational, in-
ternational, commercial. Anyone living in any
town in our own age, where advance and expansive-
ness are matters of degree, not of fact, may find it
hard to believe that any such story, nebulous though
it may be, could exist unknown and unrecorded out-
side a place so tiny that its most important details
will not be found even on the ordnance map of an
inch to the mile. But a visit to Bisley will set
aside any such doubts. The place itself has hardly

THE BISLEY BOY 295

changed, in any measure to be apparent as a change,
in the three centuries and more. The same build-
ings stand as of yore ; the same estate wall, though
more picturesque with lichen, and with individual
stones corrugated by weather and dislocated by
arboreal growths, speak of an epoch ending with
the Tudor age. The doors of the great tithe-barns
which remain as souvenirs of extinct feudalism, still
yawn wide on their festered hinges. Nay, even the
very trees show amongst their ranks an extraor-
dinary percentage of giants which have withstood
unimpaired all the changes that have been.

Leaving busy and thriving Stroud, one climbs
the long hill past Lipiat and emerges in the village,
where time has suddenly ceased, and we find our-
selves in the age and the surroundings which saw
the House of York fade into the Tudor dynasty.
Such a journey is almost a necessity for a proper
understanding of the story of the Bisley Boy, which
has by the effluxion of time attained to almost the
grace and strength of a legend. It is quite possible
that though the place has stood still, the tradition
has not, for it is in the nature of intellectual growth
to advance. One must not look on the Gloucester-
shire people as sleepy — sleepiness is no character-
istic of that breezy upland; but dreaming, whether
its results be true or false, does not depend on sleep.
In cases like the present, sleep is not to be looked
on as a blood relation of death but rather as a pre-

296 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

servative against the ravages of time — like the mys-
terious slumber of King Arthur and others who are
destined for renewal.

It may be taken for granted that in course of
time and under the process of purely oral communi-
cation, the story told in whispers lost nothing in
the way of romance or credibility ; that flaws or la-
cunae were made good by inquiry ; and that recollec-
tions of overlooked or forgotten facts were recalled
or even supplemented by facile invention. But it
may also be taken for granted that no statement
devoid of a solid foundation could become perma-
nently accepted. There were too many critics
around, with memories unimpaired by overwork, to
allow incorrect statements to pass unchallenged.
There is always this in tradition, that the collective
mind which rules in small communities is a child's
mind, which must ever hold grimly on to fact.
And that behind the child's mind is the child's na-
ture which most delights in the recountal of what
it knows, and is jealous of any addition to the story
which is a part of its being.

Major Martin Hume writes in his Courtships of
Queen Elizabeth:

"Elizabeth was only three when her mother's fall removed
her from the line of the succession. ... In 1542, how-
ever, the death of James V of Scotland and the simultaneous
birth of his daughter Mary seemed to bring nearer Henry's
idea of a union between the two crowns. He proposed to
marry the baby Queen of Scots to his infant son and at the

THE BISLEY BOY 297

same time he offered the hand of Elizabeth (then nine) to a
son of Arran — head of House of Hamilton, next heir to the
Scottish crown. . . . Mary and Elizabeth were restored
to their places in the line of succession. ... In January
1547 Henry VIII died, leaving the succession to his two
daughters in tail after Edward VI and his heirs. Queen
Catherine (Parr) immediately married Sir Thomas Seymour,
brother of Protector Somerset and uncle of the little king
(Edward VI). To them was confided Princess Elizabeth
then a girl of 14.' "

Elizabeth was three in 1536. The story of the
Bisley Boy dates probably to 1543-4. So that if
the story have any foundation at all in fact, signs
of a complete change of identity in the person of
Princess Elizabeth must be looked for in the period
of some seven or eight years which intervened.

E. THE DIFFICULTY OF PROOF

In such a case as that before us the difficulty of
proof is almost insuperable. But fortunately we
are dealing with a point not of law but of history.
Proof is not in the first instance required, but only
surmise, to be followed by an argument of proba-
bility. Such records as still exist are all the proofs
that can be adduced; and all we can do is to search
for such records as still exist, without which we lack
the enlightenment that waits on discovery. In the
meanwhile we can deduce a just conclusion from
such materials as we do possess. Failing certitude,
which is under the circumstances almost impossible,
we only arrive at probability; and with that until

298 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

discovery of more reliable material we must be con-
tent.

Let us therefore sum up: first the difficulties of
the task before us; then the enlightenments.
"Facts," says one of the characters of Charles Dick-
ens, "bein' stubborn and not easy drove," are at
least, so far as they go, available. We are free to
come to conclusions and to make critical comments.
Our risk is that if we err — on whichever side does
not matter — we reverse our position and become
ourselves the objects of attack.

Our main difficulties are two. First, that all
from whom knowledge might have been obtained
are dead and their lips are closed; second, that rec-
ords are incomplete. This latter is the result of
one of two causes — natural decay or purposed ob-
literation. The tradition of the Bisley Boy has
several addenda due to time and thought. One of
these is that some of those concerned in the story
disappeared from the scene.

The story runs that on Elizabeth's accession or
under circumstances antecedent to it all who were
in the secret and still remained were "got rid of."
The phrase is a convenient one and not unknown
in history. Fortunately those who must have been
in such a secret — if there was one — were but few.
If such a thing occurred in reality, four persons
were necessarily involved in addition to Elizabeth
herself: (1) Mrs. Ashley, (2) Thomas Parry, (3)
the parent of the living child who replaced the

THE BISLEY BOY 299

dead one; the fourth, being an unknown quantity,
represents an idea rather than a person — a nu-
cleated identity typical of family life with at-
tendant difficulties of concealment. Of these four
— three real persons and an idea — three are ac-
counted for, so far as the "got rid of" theory is
concerned. Elizabeth never told; Thomas Parry
and Mrs. Ashley remained silent, in the full con-
fidence of the (supposed) Princess who later was
Queen. With regard to the last, the nucleated
personality which includes the unknown parent pos-
sibly but not of certainty, contemporary record is
silent ; and we can only regard him or her as a mys-
terious entity available for conjecture in such cases
of difficulty as may present themselves.

We must perforce, therefore, fall back on pure
unadulterated probability, based on such rags of
fact as can be produced at our inquest. Our com-
fort — content being an impossibility — must lie in
the generally-accepted aphorism; "Truth will pre-
vail." In real life it is not always so; but it is a
comforting belief and may remain faut de mieux.

A grave cause of misleading is inexact transla-
tion — whether the fault be in ignorance or inten-
tional additions to or substractions from text
referred to. A case in point is afforded by the
letter already referred to from Leti's La Vie
d'Elizdbeth. In the portion quoted Elizabeth
mentioned her intention of not marrying: "I have
not the slightest intention of being married, and

300 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

. . . if ever I should think of it (which I do not
believe is possible)." Now in Mr. Mumby's book
the quotation is made from Leti's La Vie d'Eliza-
beth which is the translation into French from the
original Italian, the passage marked above in italics
is simply: "ce que je ne crois pas." The addition
of the words "is possible" gives what is under the
circumstances quite a different meaning to the
earliest record we have concerning the very point
we are investigating. When I began this investi-
gation, I looked on the passage — neither Mumby,
remember, nor even Leti, but what professed to be
the ipsissima verba of Elizabeth herself — and I was
entirely misled until I had made comparison for
myself — Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? The ad-
dition of the two words, which seems at first glance
merely to emphasise an expression of opinion,
changes the meaning of the writer to a belief so
strong that the recital of it gives it the weight
of intention. Under ordinary circumstances this
would not matter much ; but as w T e have to consider
it in the light of a man defending his head against
danger, and in a case where absolute circumspec-
tion is a necessary condition of safety so that inten-
tion becomes a paramount force, exactness of ex-
pression is all-important.

The only way to arrive at probability is to begin
with fact. Such is a base for even credulity or its
opposite, and if it is our wish or intention to be just
there need be no straining on either one side or the

THE BISLEY BOY 301

other. In the ease of the Bisley Boy the points to
be considered are:

1. The time at which the change was or could be
affected.

2. The risk of discovery, (a) at first, (b) after-
wards.

It will be necessary to consider these separately
for manifest reasons. The first belongs to the
region of Danger ; the second to the region of Diffi-
culty, with the headsman's axe glittering omi-
nously in the background.

F. THE TIME AND THE OPPORTUNITY

(a) The time at which the change was or could
have been effected.

For several valid reasons I have come to the con-
clusion that the crucial period by which the Bisley
story must be tested is the year ending with July
1544. No other time either earlier or later would,
so far as we know, have fulfilled the necessary con-
ditions.

First of all the question of sex has to be consid-
ered; and it is herein that, lacking suitable and full
opportunity, discovery of such an imposture must
have been at once detected — certainly had it com-
menced at an early age. In babyhood the whole
of the discipline of child-life begins. The ordinary
cleanliness of life has to be taught, and to this end
there is no portion of the infantile body which is
not subject to at least occasional inspection. This

302 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

disciplinary inspection lasts by force of habit until
another stage on the journey towards puberty has
been reached. Commercial use in America fixes
stages of incipient womanhood — by dry goods' ad-
vertisement — as "children's, misses' and girls' cloth-
ing," and the illustration will sufficiently serve.
It seems at first glance an almost unnecessary in-
trusion into purely domestic life; but the present
is just one of those cases where the experience of
women is not only useful but necessary. In a ques-
tion of identity of sex the nursemaid and the
washerwoman play useful parts in the witness box.
Regarding Elizabeth's childhood no question need
ever or can ever arise. For at least the first ten
years of her life, a woman's sex need not be known
outside the nursery and the sick room; but then
this is the very time when her attendants have direct
and ample knowledge. Moreover in the case of
the child of Queen Anne (Boleyn) there was every
reason why the sex should have been unreservedly
known. Henry VIII divorced Katherine of Ar-
agon and married Anne in the hope of having
legitimate male issue to sit on the throne of Eng-
land. Later, when both Katherine and Anne had
failed to satisfy him as to male issue, he divorced
Anne and married Jane Seymour for the same pur-
pose. In the interval either his views had enlarged
or his patience had extended ; for, when Jane's life
hung in the balance, owing to an operation which
the surgeons considered necessary, and the husband

THE BISLEY BOY 303

was consulted as to which life they should, in case
of needful choice, try to save, his reply was pecul-
iar — though, taken in the light of historical per-
spective, not at variance with his dominating idea.
Gregorio Leti thus describes the incident (the quo-
tation is made from the translation of the Italian
into French and published in Amsterdam in
1694) :—

"Quand les medecins demanderent au Roi qui Ton sauverait
de la mere ou de l'enfant, il repondit, qu'il auroit extreme-
ment souhait de pouvoir sauver la mere et l'enfant, mais que
eel n'etant possible, il vouloit que Ton sauvat l'enfant plutot
que la mere parce qu'il trouveroit assez d' autres femmes."

It had become a monomania with Henry that he
should be father of a lawful son; and when the
child of his second union was expected, he so took
the consummation of his wishes for granted that
those in attendance on his wife were actually afraid
to tell him the truth. It would have been fortune
and social honour to whosoever should bear him the
glad tidings. We may be sure then that news so
welcome would never have been perverted by those
who had so much to gain. As it was, the "lady-
mistress" — as she called herself — of the little Prin-
cess, Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Bryan, wrote in
her letter to Lord Cromwell in 1536 — Elizabeth
being then in her third year : —

"She is as toward a child and as gentle of conditions, as
ever I knew any in my life."

304 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

The writer could have had no ignorance as to the
sex of the child, for in the same letter she gives
Cromwell a list of her wants in the way of clothing ;
which list is of the most intimate kind, including
gown, kirtle, petticoat, "no manner of linen nor
smocks," kerchiefs, rails, body stitchets, handker-
chiefs, sleeves, mufflers, biggens. As in the same
letter it is mentioned that the women attending the
child were under the rule of Lady Bryan — an ac-
complished nurse who had brought up Princess
Mary and had been "governess to the children his
Grace have had ever since" — it can be easily under-
stood she was well acquainted with even the small-
est detail of the royal nursery. Had the trouble
of the lady-mistress been with regard to super-
abundance of underclothing, one might have under-
stood ignorance on the part of the responsible con-
troller; but in the plentiful lack of almost every
garment necessary for the child's wear by day or
by night there could be no question as to her osten-
sible sex at this age.

Thence on, there were experienced and devoted
persons round the little Princess, whose value in her
father's eyes was largely enhanced since he had se-
cured, for the time, her legitimacy by an Act of
Parliament.

After Elizabeth had been legitimised, she be-
came one of the pieces in the gigantic game of
chess on wliich Henry had embarked. Despite the
fact that the son for whom he had craved was now

THE BISLEY BOY 305

a boy of six, it was only wise to consider and be
prepared for whatever might happen in case
Prince Edward should not live, and if, in such a
case, Mary should die without issue. The case
was one of amazing complexity, and as the time
wore on the religious question became structurally
involved. England had declared in no uncertain
voice in favour of Protestantism, and the whole
forces of Rome were arrayed against her. Mary
was altogether in favour of the religion of her in-
jured mother, and behind her stood the power of
Catholicism which, even in that unscrupulous age,
was well ahead in the race of unscrupulousness.
And as Elizabeth stood next to the young Prince
Edward in the forces of Reformation, on her was
focussed much of the suspicion of polemic intrigue.
The papacy was all powerful in matters of secret
inquiry. Indeed in such an inquest its powers were
unique, for unscrupulous spies were everywhere —
even, it was alleged, in the confessional. How
then could such a secret as the sex of a little girl
of not a dozen years of age, who was constantly
surrounded by women necessarily conversant with
every detail of her life, be kept from all who wished
to solve it. In such a state of affairs suspicion was
equivalent to discovery. And discovery meant
ruin to all concerned, death to abettors of the
fraud, woe and destruction to England and a gen-
eral upheaval of the fundamental ideas of Chris-
tendom. It may, I presume, be taken for granted

306 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

without flaw or mitigation of any kind that up to
July, 1543, the "Princess Elizabeth" was what she
appeared to be — a girl.

At the time of her first letter to the new Queen,
Catherine (Parr), she was just a trifle under ten
years of age and a well-grown child, quick, clever,
rather precocious, and well grounded in the learn-
ing of her time. The exact date of this letter is
not given by Leti — of which more anon — but it
must have been somewhere between July 12 and
31, 1543. Henry VIII married Catherine Parr
on 12 July, and in her letter of 1543 Elizabeth calls
Catherine "your Majesty." In her letter of 31
July, 1544 she writes to the same correspondent:

"... has deprived me for a whole year of your most
illustrious presence."

The whereabouts of Elizabeth during this last
year appears to be the centre of the mystery ; and if
any letter or proof is ever found of Elizabeth's be-
ing anywhere but in her own house of Overcourt in
Bisley Parish, it will go far to settle the vexed ques-
tion now brought before the world for the first
time.

(b) The opportunity

The year 1542 was a busy time for Henry
VIII. He had on hand, either pending or
going on, two momentous wars, one with Scot-
land the other with France. The causes of either

THE BISLEY BOY 307

of these were too complicated for mention here;
suffice it to say that they were chiefly dynastic and
polemic. In addition he was busy with matri-
monial matters, chiefly killing off his fifth wife
Catherine Howard, and casting eyes on the new-
made widow of Lord Latimer. In 1543 he mar-
ried the lady, as his sixth wife. She herself can
hardly be said to have lacked matrimonial experi-
ence, as this was her third union. Her first ven-
ture was with the elderly Lord Borough, who, like
Lord Latimer, left her wealthy. Henry had by
now got what might be called in the slang of the
time "the marriage habit," and honeymoon dal-
liance had hardly the same charm for him as it
usually is supposed to have with those blessed with
a lesser succession of spouses. The consequence
was that he was able to give more attention to the
necessary clearing up of the Scottish war, which
finished at Solway Moss on December 14th, with
the consequent death from chagrin of the Scottish
King James V. The cause of the war, however,
continued in the shape of a war with France which
went on till 1546 when peace was declared to the
pecuniary benefit of the English King. For the
last two years of this time Henry carried on the
war singlehanded, as the Emperor Charles V, who
had begun it as his ally, withdrew.

There is a paragraph in Grafton's Chronicle
published in 1569 which throws a flood of light on
Elizabeth's absence at this time, 1543: "This yeare

308 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

was in London a great death of the pestilence, and
therefore Mighelmas terme was adjourned to Saint
Albones, and there it was kept to the ende."

In his Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Mumby
says: "For some obscure reason Elizabeth seems to
have fallen out of her father's favour again very
soon after Catherine Parr had obtained his consent
to her return to Court" (1543). No such cause
for the removal of the Princess from London was
necessary. It was probably to the presence of the
pestilence in London that her removal to a remote
and healthy place was due. Failing Prince Ed-
ward, then only five years of age and a weakly
child, the crown must — unless some constitutional
revolution be effected in the meantime or some
future son be born to him — devolve on his fe-
male heirs, a matter pregnant with strife of
unknown dimensions. Mary was now twenty-
seven years old and of a type that did not
promise much for maternity. At the same time,
Mary, though his eldest living daughter, was the
hope of the Catholic party, to which he was in vio-
lent opposition; whereas in Elizabeth lay the hope
of the whole of the party of the Reformation.
Her life was to her father far beyond the calls of
parental affection or dynastic ambition, and she had
to be saved at all costs from risk of health.
Henry's own experience of child-life was a bitter
one. Of his five children by Catherine of Aragon
only one, Mary, survived childhood. Elizabeth

THE BISLEY BOY 309

was the only survivor of Anne Boleyn; Edward,
of Jane Seymour. Anne of Cleves had no chil-
dren, and if report spoke truly no chance of having
any. Catherine Howard was executed childless.
And he had only just married Catherine Parr, who
had already had two husbands.

On July 12, 1543, Henry married Catherine and
in due course devoted himself to the war. On the
14 July, 1544, he crossed from Dover to Calais to
look after the conduct of affairs for himself, and
on the 26th began the siege of Boulogne. This
lasted for two months when having reduced the
city he returned home. On the 8 September he
wrote to his wife to that effect. During his ab-
sence Queen Catherine was vicegerent and had
manifestly as much public work on hand as she
could cope with. Bisley was a long way from Lon-
don, and there were no organised posts in the six-
teenth century. Moreover, ever since his last mar-
riage, Henry had been an invalid. He was now
fifty-two years of age, of unhealthy body, and so
heavy that he had to be lifted by machinery.
Catherine was a devoted wife; and as Henry was
both violent and irritable she had little time at com-
mand to give to the affairs of other people. There
was small opportunity for any one then who was
sufficiently in the focus of affairs to be cognisant
of such an imposture as the tradition points out.
Doubtless hereafter, when a story so fascinating
and at first glance so incredible begins to be ex-

310 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

aniined and its details thoroughly threshed out,
more items of evidence or surmise than are at pres-
ent available will be found for the settlement of the
question, one way or the other. In the meantime,
be it remembered, that we are only examining off-
hand a tradition made known for the first time after
three centuries. Our present business is to con-
sider possibilities. Later on the time may come —
as it surely will; if the story can in the least be ac-
cepted — for the consideration of probabilities.
Both of these tentative examinations will lead to
the final examination of possibility, of probability,
and of proof pro or contra.

At this stage we must admit that neither time
nor opportunity present any difficulty in itself in-
superable.

G. THE IDENTITY OF ELIZABETH

(a) Documents

The next matter with which we have to deal
is regarding the identity of Elizabeth. This
needs (if necessary) a consideration of the facts
of her life, and so far as we can realise
them, from external appearance, mental and moral
attitudes, and intentions. On account of space we
must confine this branch of the subject to the small-
est portion of time necessary to form any sort of
just conclusion and accepting the available records
up to 1543, take the next period from that time to

THE BISLEY BOY 311

anywhere within the first few years of her reign —
by which time her character was finally fixed and
the policy on which her place in history is to be
judged had been formulated and tested.

This implies in the first instance a brief (very
brief) study of her physique with a corollary in the
shape of a few remarks on her heredity :

Grafton's Chronicle states, under the date of 7
September 1533, "the Queene was delivered
of a fayre Lady" which was his Courtly way of an-
nouncing the birth of a female princess, blond in
colour. In all chronicles "fayre" means of light
colour. In Wintown the reputed father of Mac-
beth — the Devil — is spoken of as a "fayre" man;
evil qualities were in that age attributed to blondes.
In a letter dated from Greenwich Palace, 18
April, 1534, Sir William Kingston said to Lord
Lisle: "To-day, the King and Queen were at
Eltham" (where the royal nursery then was) "and
saw my Lady Princess — as goodly a child as hath
been seen. Her Grace is much in the King's
favour as a goodly child should be — God save her!"
In 1536, when Elizabeth was but three years old,
Lady Bryan, the "Lady-mistress" of both Mary
and her half-sister, wrote from Hunsdon to Lord
Cromwell regarding the baby princess. "For she
is as toward a child and as gentle of conditions, as
ever I knew any in my life. Jesus preserve her
Grace!" In the same letter she says "Mr. Shelton
would have my Lady Elizabeth to dine and sup

312 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

every day at the board of estate. Alas! my Lord
it is not meet for a child of her age to keep such
rule yet. I promise you, my lord, I dare not take
it upon me to keep her Grace in health an' she
keep that rule. For there she shall see divers
meats, and fruits, and wines, which it would be
hard for me to restrain her Grace from. Ye
know, my lord, there is no place of correction there ;
and she is yet too young to correct greatly."

Testimony is borne according to Leti to the good
qualities of the Princess Elizabeth in these early
years, by the affectionate regard in which she was
held by two of Henry's queens, the wronged and
unhappy Anne of Cleves and the happy-natured
Catherine Parr. Anne, he says, though she had
only seen her twice loved her much ; she thought her
beautiful and full of spirit ("pleine d'esprit.")
Catherine, according to the same writer who had
seen her often before her marriage to Henry, ad-
mired her "esprit et ses manieres."

If Leti could only have spoken at first hand, his
record of her would be very valuable. But unhap-
pily he was only born nearly thirty years after her
death. His history was manifestly written from
records and as Elizabeth's fame was already made
before he began to treat of her his work is largely
a panegyric of hearsay. There is, regarding the
youth of the Princess, such an overdone flood of
adulation that it is out of place in a serious history
of a human life. In his account of the time which

THE BISLEY BOY 313

we are considering, we find the child compared in
both matters of body and mind to an angel. She
is credited at the age of ten with an amount of
knowledge in all branches of learning sufficient to
equip the illustrious men of a century. The fact
is the Italian has accepted the queen's great posi-
tion, and then reconstructed her youth to accord
with it, in such a way as to show that whatever re-
markable abilities she possessed were the direct out-
come of her own natural qualities. 1

The details above given are not merely meagre
but are only explicable by the fact that during the
earlier years of her life the child was not consid-
ered of any importance. The circumstances of
Anne's marriage — which in any case was delayed
till it became a necessary preliminary to the legiti-
macy on which any future claim to the throne must
rest — did not make for a belief in the public mind
for its permanency. Things were fluctuating in
the religious world and few were inclined to the be-
lief that the Pope (with whom lay the last word
and whose political leanings in favour of Catherine
of Aragon and the validity of her marriage to
Henry were well known) would be overthrown by
the English King. And in any case, were Henry

i Amongst other branches of knowledge he credits her with know-
ing well " Geography, Cosmography, Mathematics, Architecture,
Painting, Arithmetic, History, Mechanics." She had a special fa-
cility in learning languages; spoke and wrote French, Italian, Span-
ish, Flemish. She loved poetry and wrote it, but regarded it as a
useless amusement and, as it was distasteful to her, turned to his-
tory and politics. Finally he adds: "She was naturally ambitious
and always knew how to hide her defects."

314 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

to be the final judge of appeal in his own case no
great continuity of purpose could be expected
from him. The first important event which we
have to consider with reference to the question be-
fore us is Elizabeth's first letter to Queen Cath-
erine (Parr) in 1543. In this the girl then ten
years old writes to her new step-mother, at whose
marriage she together with her half-sister Mary
had been present. It is in form a dutiful letter,
not entirely without an apparent compulsion or at
least intelligent supervision. As it stands, it is im-
possible to believe that it emanated from a child of
ten quite free to follow out its inclinations. The
dutifulness is altogether, or largely, due to the
training and self -suppression of the royal child of
an arbitrary father with absolute power. But it
remains for each reader to consider it impartially.
The points which we should do well to note here
are its plain form of expression, and its entire ab-
sence of personal affection. The latter is all the
more marked in that it was a letter of thanks for a
kindness conferred. Elizabeth was very anxious
to come to her father, and Catherine had furthered
her wish and secured its fulfilment. After the
marriage, the child, as is shown (or rather in-
ferred), had been sent away for more than a year,
which absence had been prolonged for at least six
months — as already shown.

There is little evidence of Elizabeth's inner na-
ture in these early days ; but we have every right to

THE BISLEY BOY 315

think that she was of a peaceable, kindly and affec-
tionate nature. Lady Bryan her first nurse or
governess (after Lady Boleyn, Anne's mother)
thought highly of her. Catherine Ashley, who
had charge of her next, loved her and was her de-
voted servant, friend and confidant till her death.

Thomas Parry her life-long friend was devoted
to her, and when the circumstances of their respec-
tive lives and the happenings of the time kept them
apart, she restored him at the first opportunity and
made his fortune her special care.

There is little base here on which to build an in-
verted pyramid ; our only safety is in taking things
as they seem to be and using common sense.

(b) Changes

Let us now take the years beginning with 1544.
From this time on, more is known of the person-
ality of Elizabeth; in fact there is little unknown,
that is, of matters of fact, and to this only we
must devote ourselves. Whatever may have been
Elizabeth's motives we can only infer them. She
was a secretive person and took few into her con-
fidence, unless it was of vital necessity — and then
only in matters required by the circumstance. The
earliest knowledge we have of this second period of
her history is in her letter to Queen Catherine
(Parr) written from St. James' Palace on 31 July,
1544.

In the year which had elapsed since her last re-

316 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

corded letter Elizabeth's literary style had entirely
changed. The meagre grudging style has become
elegant and even florid with the ornate grace and
imagery afforded by the study of the Latin and
French tongues. Altogether there is not merely
a more accomplished diction but there is behind it
a truer feeling and larger sympathy. It is more
in accord with the letter accompanying the gift to
the Queen, of her translation of the Mirror of the
Sinful Soul which she had dedicated to her.

Historians have given various rescripts of cer-
tain earlier letters of the Princess Elizabeth, but
none of them seem in harmony of thought with
this, whereas it is quite in accord with her later
writings. Metabolism is an accepted doctrine of
physiology ; but its scope is not — as yet at all events
— extended to the intellect, and we must take
things as we find them within the limits of human
knowledge.

It will perhaps be as well to reserve the consid-
eration of any other point, except the change in
actual identity, till the complete analogy of all nat-
ural processes is an established fact.

(c) Her personality

We have no letters of Princess Elizabeth before
1543 which are not open to grave doubt as to date,
but there is one letter to which allusion must al-
most of necessity be made. It is a letter from
Roger Ascham, tutor to the Princess Elizabeth, to

THE BISLEY BOY 317

Mrs. Ashley. No date is given by Mr. Mumby,
but he states in his text that it was written "dur-
ing Grindal's term of office" as tutor to the Prin-
cess. Mumby quotes from the Elizabeth of Miss
Strickland, who in turn quotes from Whittaker's
Richmondshire. Now Grindal's term of office
lasted from 1546 (probably the end of that year)
till it was cut short by his death from the Plague
in 1548, so that he could not have known his royal
pupil before 1544. The text of the letter leads a
careful reader to infer that it was written after that
date. The important part of the letter is as fol-
lows :

"... the thanks you have deserved from that noble
imp by your labour and wisdom now flourishing in all goodly
godliness. ... I wish her Grace (Elizabeth) to come to
that end in perfectness and likelihood of her wit and pain-
lessness in her study, true trade of her teaching, which your
diligent overseeing doth most constantly promise. ... I
wish all increase of virtue and honour to that my good lady,
whose wit, good Mrs. Ashley, I beeseech you somewhat favour.
Blunt edges be dull and dure much pain to little profit; the
free edge is soon turned if it be not handled thereafter. If
you pour much drink at once into a goblet, the most part will
dash out and run over; if ye pour it softly you may fill it
even to the top, and so her Grace, I doubt not, by little and
little may be increased in learning, that at length greater
cannot be required."

If this letter means anything at all — which in
the case of such a man as Roger Ascham is not to
be doubted — it means that Mrs. Ashley, then her

318 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

governess, was cautioned not to press the little girl
overmuch in her lessons. It is an acknowledgment
of the teacher's zeal as well as affection, and in the
flowery and involved style of the period and the
man, illustrates the theory by pointing out the
error of trying to fill a small vessel from a larger
one by pouring too fast. She is not a backward
child, he says in effect, but go slowly with her edu-
cation, you cannot give full learning all at once.

Compare this letter with that of the same writer
to John Sturmius, Rector of the Protestant Uni-
versity of Strasbourg, on the same subject in 1550:

"The Lady Elizabeth has accomplished her sixteenth year;
and so much of solidity of understanding, such courtesy united
with dignity, have never been observed at so early an age.
She has the most ardent love of true religion and of the best
kind of literature. The constitution of her mind is exempt
from female weakness, and she is endued with a masculine
power of application.

"No apprehension can be quicker than hers, no memory
more retentive. French and Italian she speaks like English;
Latin with fluency, propriety and judgment; she also spoke
Greek with me, frequently, willingly, and understanding well.
Nothing can be more elegant than her handwriting, whether
in the Greek or Roman character. In music she is very skil-
ful but does not greatly delight. With respect to personal
decoration, she greatly prefers a simple elegance to show and
splendour, so despising the outward adorning of plaiting the
hair and of wearing of gold, that in the whole manner of her
life she rather resembles Hippolyta than Phaedra."

That such a scholar as Roger Ascham makes the
simile is marked. Hippolyta was a Queen of the

THE BISLEY BOY 319

Amazons and Phaedra was an almost preternatu-
rally womanly woman, one with a tragic intensity
of passion.

The Elizabeth whom we know from 1544 to
1603 certainly had brains enough to protect her
neck. In 1549 Sir Robert Tyrwhitt wrote to the
Protector Somerset, apropos of the strenuous ef-
fort being made to gain from her some admission
damaging to herself concerning Thomas Sey-
mour's attempts to win her hand :

"She hath a very pretty wit and nothing is got-
ten out of her but by great policy."

In a letter from Simon Renard Ambassador to
the Emperor Charles V dated London September
23, 1553, there is incidentally a statement regard-
ing Elizabeth's character which it is wise to hold in
mind when discussing this particular period of her
history. Writing of Elizabeth's first attendance
at Mass he said: "she, Mary, . . . entreated
Madame Elizabeth to speak freely of all that was
on her conscience, to which the Princess replied
that she was resolved to declare publicly that in go-
ing to Mass as in all else that she had done, she
had only obeyed the voice of her conscience; and
that she had acted freely, without fear, deceit, or
pretence. We have since been told, however, that
the said Lady Elizabeth is very timid, and that
while she was speaking with the Queen she trem-
bled very much."

Compare with this the letter of 16th March, 1554

320 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

to the Queen (Mary) written just as she was told
to go to the Tower. In this letter which is beauti-
fully written and with not a trace of agitation she
protests her innocence of any plot. Her mental
attitude was thoroughly borne out by a calm dig-
nity of demeanour which is more in accord with
male than female nature. In very fact Elizabeth
appears all her life since 1544 to have been playing
with great thoughtfulness and yet dexterity a
diplomatic game — acting with histrionic subtlety
a part which she had chosen advisedly.

A good idea of the personality of Elizabeth dur-
ing the period beginning with 1544 may be had
from a brief consideration of the risks which a per-
son taking up such an imposture would run, first
at the time of beginning the venture and then of
sustaining the undertaken role. At the outset a
boy of ten or eleven would not think of taking it
seriously. At first he would look on it as a "lark"
and carry out the idea with a serious energy only
known in play-time. Later thought would give it
a new charm in the shape of danger. This, while
adding to his great zest, would sober him; thence
on it would be a game — just such a game as a boy
loves, perpetual struggle to get the best of some-
one else. To some natures wit against wit is a
better strife than strength against strength, and if
one were well equipped for such a fray the game
would satisfy the ambition of his years. In any
case when once such a game was entered on, the

THE BISLEY BOY 321

stake would be his own head — a consideration which
must undoubtedly make for strenuous effort — even
in boyhood.

The task which would have followed — which did
follow if the Bisley story is true — would have been
vastly greater. If the imposture escaped immedi-
ate detection — which is easily conceivable — a new
kind of endeavour would have been necessary; one
demanding the utmost care and perpetual vigilance
in addition to the personal qualities necessary for
the carrying out of the scheme. Little help could
be given to the young boy on whom rested the
weight of what must have appeared to all con-
cerned in it a stupendous undertaking. From the
nature of the task, which was one which even the
faintest breath of suspicion would have ruined, the
little band, originally involved, could gain no as-
sistance. Safety was only possible by the main-
tenance of the most rigid secrecy. All around
them were enemies served by a host of zealous spies.
If then the story be true, those who carried such an
enterprising situation to lasting success, must have
been no common persons. Let us suppose for a
moment that the story was true. In such case the
Boy of Bisley who acted the part of the Princess
Elizabeth could have had only two assistants — as-
sistants even if they were only passive. Whatever
may have happened we know from history that
both Mrs. Ashley and Thomas Parry were in-
grainedly loyal to Elizabeth, as she was to them.

322 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

For convenience we shall speak of the substitute
of the Princess as though he were the Princess her-
self whom he appeared to be, and for whom he was
accepted thenceforth. That the imposture — if
there was one — succeeded is a self-evident fact; for
almost sixty years there was no question raised by
any person of either sex and of any political opin-
ion. The statecraft of England, France, the
Papacy, and the German Empire were either un-
suspicious or in error — or both. It is reasonable to
imagine that a person of strong character and
active intelligence might have steered deftly be-
tween these variously opposing forces. It is con-
ceivable that in the case of a few individuals there
might have been stray fragmentary clouds of sus-
picion; though if there were any they must have
come to those who were held to a consequent in-
activity by other dominating causes. We shall
have occasion presently to touch on this subject but
in the meantime we must accept it that there was
no opinion expressed by any one in such a way as
necessarily to provoke action. Of course after a
time even suspicion became an impossibility. Here
was a young girl growing into womanhood whom
all around her had known all her life — or what was
equivalent — believed they had. It is only now
after three centuries that we can consider who it
wps that formed the tally of those who knew the
personality of Elizabeth during both periods of her
youth, that up to 1543-4 and that which followed.

THE BISLEY BOY 323

Henry VIII manifestly not only had no doubt on
the subject but no thought. If he had had he was
just the man to have settled it at once. Anne
Boleyn was dead, so was her predecessor in title.
Anne of Cleves had accepted the annulment of her
marriage — and a pension. Jane Seymour and
Catherine Howard were both dead. Nearly all
those who as nurses, governesses, or teachers, Lady
Bryan, Richard Croke, William Grindal, Roger
Ascham, who knew the first period were dead or
had retired into other spheres. Those who re-
mained knowing well the individuality of the Prin-
cess and representing both periods were Mrs.
Ashley, Thomas Parry and the Queen (later dow-
ager) Catherine Parr.

We know already of the faithfulness of the two
former, the man who was a clever as well as a faith-
ful servant, and the woman, who having no chil-
dren of her own, took to her heart the little child
entrusted to her care and treated her with such
affectionate staunchness — a staunchness which has
caused more than one historian to suspect that there
was some grave secret between them which linked
their fortunes together.

As to Catherine Parr we are able to judge from
her letters that she was fond of her step-daughter
and was consistently kind to her. Those who
choose to study the matter further can form an
opinion of their own from certain recorded episodes
which, given without any elucidating possibilities

324 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

leave the historians in further doubt. Leti puts in
his Life, under the date of 1543, "before her mar-
riage to Henry, Catherine Parr had seen often
Elizabeth and admired her." The Italian historian
may have had some authority for the statement;
but also it may have been taken from some state-
ment made by Elizabeth in later years or by some
person in her interest, to create a misleading belief.
In any case let us accept the statement as a matter
of fact. If so it may throw a light on another
branch of this eternal and diverse mystery.
Martin Hume and F. A. Mumby approaching the
subject from different points confess themselves
puzzled by Elizabeth's attitude to men. The for-
mer writes in his Courtships of Queen Elizabeth:

"No one can look at the best portraits of Elizabeth without
recognising at a glance that she was not a sensual woman.
The lean, austere face, the tight thin lips, the pointed delicate
chin, the cold dull eyes, tell of a character the very opposite
of lascivious."

Mr. Mumby writing about Mrs. Ashley's "Con-
fession" and of the horse-play between Elizabeth
and Lord Seymour (whom Queen Catherine had
married immediately after the King's death) makes
this remark:

"The most surprising thing about this behaviour is that the
Queen should have encouraged it."

There is plenty of room for wonder, considering
that Admiral Seymour had earlier wanted to marry

THE BISLEY BOY 325

Elizabeth. But Catherine was a clever woman,
who had already had three husbands — Seymour
was her fourth — and children. If any one would
see through a boy's disguise as a girl she was the
one. It is hard to imagine that Seymour's wife
had not good cause for some form revenge on
him of whom Hallam speaks of as a "dangerous
and unprincipled man" and of whom Latimer said
"he was a man farthest from the fear of God that
ever I knew or heard of in England" as it was be-
lieved at the time of her death that he had poisoned
his wife, the Queen dowager, to make way for a
marriage with Elizabeth, with whom according to
common belief he was still in love, it would be only
natural that a woman of her disposition and with
her sense of humour, shoulcl revenge herself in a
truly wifely way by using for the purpose, with-
out betraying the secret, her private knowledge
or belief of the quasi-princess's real sex. Such
would afford an infinite gratification to an ill-used
wife jealous of so vain a husband.

We now come to the crux of the whole story —
the touchstone of this strange eventful history.
Could there have been such a boy as is told of;
one answering to the many conditions above shown
to be vitally necessary for the carrying out of such
a scheme of imposture. The answer to this ques-
tion is distinctly in the affirmative; there could have
been such a boy ; had the Duke of Richmond been
born fourteen or fifteen years earlier than he was,

326 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

the difficulties of appearance, intellect, education,
and other qualifications need not have presented
themselves.

If the question to be asked is: "Was there such
a boy?" the answer cannot be so readily given. In
the meantime there are some considerations from
the study of which — or through which — an answer
may, later, be derived.

H. THE SOLUTION

The Duke of Richmond

The points which must be settled before we can
solve the mystery of the Bisley Boy are:

(1) Was there such an episode regarding the
early life of the Princess Elizabeth?

(2) Was there such a boy as was spoken of?

(3) How could such an imposture have been
carried out, implying as it did —

(a) A likeness to the Princess so extraordinary
as not to have created suspicion in the mind of
anyone not already in the plot.

(b) An acquaintance with the circumstances of
the life of the Princess sufficiently accurate to ward
off incipient suspicion caused by any overlooking
or neglect of necessary conditions.

(c) An amount of education and knowledge
equal to that held by a child of ten to twelve years
of age who had been taught by some of the most
learned persons of the time.

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND

THE BISLEY BOY 327

(d) A skill in classics and foreign tongues only
known amongst high scholars and diplomatists.

(e) An ease of body and a courtliness of man-
ner and bearing utterly foreign to any not bred in
the higher circles of social life.

If there could be found a boy answering such
conditions — one whose assistance could be had with
facility and safety — then the solution is possible,
even if not susceptible of the fullest proof. Fol-
lowing the lines of argument hitherto used in this
book, let us first consider reasons why such an
argument is tenable. I may then perhaps be
allowed to launch the theory which has come to me
during this investigation.

(a) His Birth and Appearance

A part — and no small part — of the bitterness of
Henry VIII in not having a son to succeed him
was that, though he had a son, such could not by
the existing law succeed him on the throne.

Nearly ten years after his marriage to Cath-
erine of Aragon and after a son and other
children had been born to them, all of whom had
died shortly after birth, Henry had in the manner
of mediaeval kings — and others — entered on a love
affair, the object of his illicit affection being one
of the ladies-in-waiting to Queen Catherine, Eliza-
beth, daughter of John Blount of Knevet, Shrop-
shire.

The story of this love affair is thus given in

328 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

quaint old English in Grafton's Chronicle first
published in 1569 which covers the period from
1189 to 1558:

"You shall understande, the King in his freshe youth was
in the cheynes of love with a faire damosell called Elizabeth
Blunt, daughter of Syr John Blunt Knight, which damosell
in synging, daunsing, and in all goodly pastimes, excelled
all other, by the which goodly pastimes, she wanne the king's
hart: and she againe shewed him such favour that by him she
bare a goodly man childe, of beautie like to the father and
mother. This child was well brought up lyke a Princes
childe."

(b) His Upbringing and Marriage

This son of an unlawful union — born in 1519
it is said — was called Henry Fitzroy after the cus-
tom applicable in such cases to the natural children
of kings. Naturally enough his royal father took
the greatest interest in this child and did, whilst
the latter lived, all in his power to further his in-
terests. A mere list of the honours conferred on
him during his short life will afford some clue
to the King's intention of his further advancement,
should occasion serve. The shower of favours be-
gan in 1525 when the child, as is said, was only
six years of age. On the 18th of June of this year
he was created Earl of Nottingham and Duke of
Richmond and Somerset, with precedence over all
dukes except those of the King's lawful issue. He
was also made a Knight of the Garter — of which
exalted Order he was raised to the Lieutenancy

THE BISLEY BOY 329

eight years later. He was also nominated to other
high offices: the King's Lieutenant General for
districts north of the Trent ; and Keeper of the city
and fortress of Carlisle. To these posts were
added those of Lord High Admiral of England,
Wales, Ireland, Normandy, Gascony and Aqui-
taine; Warden General of the Marches of Scot-
land, and Receiver of Middleham and of Sheriff
Hutton, Yorkshire. He was also given an income
of four thousand pounds sterling per annum. In
1529, being then only ten years of age, he was also
made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Constable of
Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports —
three of the most important offices of the Nation.
A few months before his death in 1536 there was a
general understanding that Henry VIII intended
to make him King of Ireland and possibly to nom-
inate him as his successor on the throne of Eng-
land. That some such intention was in Henry's
mind was shown by the Succession Act passed just
before the close of the Parliament which was dis-
solved in 1536. In this Act it is fixed that the
Crown is to devolve on the King's death to the son
of Jane Seymour and in default of issue by him,
on Mary and Elizabeth in succession in case of lack
of issue by the former. In the event of their both
dying before the King and without issue he is to
appoint by will his successor on the throne.

The various important posts conferred on the
young Duke of Richmond were evidently prepa-

330 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

rations for the highest post of all, which in default
of legitimate issue of his own legitimate children
he intended to confer on him.

The education which was given to the little Duke
is of especial interest and ought in the present con-
nection to be carefully studied. It was under the
care of Richard Croke, celebrated for his scholar-
ship; who in the modern branch was assisted by
John Palsgrave the author of the earliest English
grammar of the French language " Lesclarcisse-
ment de la langue Francoyse." In spite of the
opposition of his household the Duke of Richmond
devoted his young life to study rather than to arms.
Whilst still a young boy he had already read a
part of Ccesar, Virgil and Terence, knew a little
Greek, and was fairly skilful in music — singing
and playing on the virginals. There was much
talk in Court circles as to whom he should marry
and many ladies of high degree were named. One
was a niece of Pope Clement VII; another was a
Danish princess ; still another a princess of France ;
also a daughter of Eleanor, dowager Queen of
Portugal, a sister of Charles V. This lady was
afterwards Queen of France.

Early in 1532 the Duke resided for a while at
Hatfield. Then he went to Paris with his friend
the Earl of Surrey, son of the Duke of Norfolk.
There he remained till September, 1533. On his
return to England he married by special dispensa-
tion, on 25 November, 1533, Mary Howard, daugh-

THE BISLEY BOY 331

ter of the Duke of Norfolk by his second marriage
and sister of Surrey. Incidentally he is said to
have been present at the beheading of Queen Anne
(Boleyn) , May 19, 1536. He did not long survive
the last-named exhibition, for some two months
later — 22 July, 1536, he died. There was at the
time a suspicion that he had been poisoned by Eord
Rochford, brother of Queen Anne (Boleyn).

Henry Duke of Richmond and Somerset had no
legal issue. As a matter of fact though he was
married in 1533, nearly three years before his death,
he never lived with his wife. It was said that
he was not only young for matrimony, being only
seventeen; but was in very bad health. It was in-
tended that after his marriage he should go to Ire-
land; but on account of the state of his health that
journey was postponed — as it turned out, for ever.

A light on this ill-starred marriage is thrown in
the quaint words of another chronicler of the time,
Charles Wriothesley, who wrote of the time be-
tween 1485 and 1559.

"But the said younge duke had never layne by his wife,
and so she is maide, wife, and now a widowe; I praie God
send her now good fortune."

In this summarised history certain points are to be
noticed :

(1) The Duke of Richmond was like his father
(Henry VIII) and his mother who was "fayre."

(2) A Dispensation was obtained for his mar-

332 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

riage to Lady Mary Howard which took place in
1533 but with whom he never cohabited.

There is a side-light here of the hereditary aspect
of the case. Both the Duke and Duchess of Rich-
mond were "fayre," and in the language of the old
chroniclers "fayre" means blonde. Wintown for
instance speaking of Macbeth's supposed descent
from the Devil says:

"Gottyne he was on ferly wys

"Hys Modyr to woddis mad oft repayre

"For the delyte of halesum ayre.

"Swa, scho past a-pon a day

"Tyl a Wod, hyr for to play:

"Scho met at eas with a fayr man."

And Grafton thus speaks under date 7 Septem-
ber 1533 of Elizabeth's birth: "The Queen was de-
livered of a fayre Lady."

Now Anne Boleyn is described as small and
lively, a brunette with black hair and beautiful
eyes, and yet her daughter is given as red-haired
by all the painters.

It is somewhat difficult to make out the true col-
ours of persons. For instance Giovanni Michiel
writing to the Venetian Senate in 1557 puts in his
description of Elizabeth "She is tall and well
formed, with a good skin, although swarthy" but
in the same page he says "she prides herself on her
father and glories in him ; everybody is saying that
she also resembles him more than the Queen
[Mary] does." As to the introduction of the

THE BISLEY BOY 333

word "swarthy" as above; it may have been one of
the tricks of Elizabeth to keep the Venetian am-
bassador from knowing too much or getting any
ground for guessing. If so it looks rather like
Elizabeth concealing her real identity — which
would be an argument in favour of an imposture;
if she was the real princess there would be no need
for concealment.

It is only common sense to expect, if the
paternal element was so strong in Henry as to
reproduce in offspring his own colour, that had
the Duke of Richmond had any issue especially
by a fair wife it too would have inherited some-
thing of the family colour. Holbein's picture of
the "Lady of Richmond," as the Duke's wife was
called, shows her as a fair woman.

These are two points to be here borne in mind;
that Henry VIII was probably bald, for in none
of his pictures is any hair visible. It would hardly
be polite to infer that Elizabeth wore a wig for
the same reason. But it is recorded that she always
travelled with a stock of them — no less than eighty
of various colours.

But there are other indications of such conceal-
ment. Why for instance did she object to see doc-
tors? So long as she was free and could control
them she did not mind; but whilst she was under
duress they were a source of danger. Perhaps it
is this which accounts for her taking the Sacra-
ment on 26 August, 1554 when she was practically

334 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

a prisoner at Woodstock in the keeping of Sir
Henry Bedingfield. About the third week in June
the Princess asked Sir Henry to be allowed to have
a doctor sent to her. He in turn applied to the
Council who made answer on the 25th that the
Queen's Oxford physician was ill and Mr. Wendy
was absent and the remaining one, Mr. Owen, could
not be spared. The latter however recommended
two Oxford doctors, Barnes and Walbec, in case
she should care to see either of them. On July 4th
Sir Henry reported to the Council that Elizabeth
in politely declining said: "I am not minded to
make any stranger privy to the state of my body,
but commit it to God." Then, when through her
submission to the Queen's religious convictions she
had obtained her liberty, she took no more concern
in the matter.

The Duchess of Richmond

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, married
twice. His second wife was the lady Elizabeth
Stafford, eldest daughter of the Duke of Bucking-
ham, and he had issue by both marriages. In 1533
the only surviving daughter of the second marriage
was Mary, who was thus the Lady Mary Howard,
sister of the Earl of Surrey. It was this lady with
whom the uncompleted marriage of the Duke of
Richmond took place. Doubtless they were early
friends. In her youth she used to spend the sum-
mer at Tendring Hall, Suffolk, and the winter

THE DUCHESS OF RICHMOND

THE BISLEY BOY 335

at Hunsdon, Hertfordshire, where was one of
Henry's palaces ; in addition Henry was one of the
closest companions of her brother, the Earl of Sur-
rey. Lady Richmond's part in the historical epi-
sode before us is hardly direct. It only comes in
through two circumstances not unattended with
mystery. It is not necessary that the two were
correlated; but no student can get away from the
idea that there was some connection between them,
especially when there is another inference bearing
on the subject with reference to the second mar-
riage of the Duchess. This took place after an
interval of some years to Gilbert, son of Sir George
Talboys of Goloths, Lincolnshire. The name of
the second husband is variously spelled in the
chronicles as Tailboise or Talebuse. She died in
the year before Elizabeth came to the throne. The
two things to examine closely with regard to this
marriage to the Duke of Richmond were the Dis-
pensation for the marriage (together with the date
of it), and its non-fulfilment. The Dispensation
was dated 28 November, 1533, but the marriage
took place three days earlier. Whether this dis-
crepancy had anything to do with her later mar-
riage to Talboys we can only guess — unless of
course more exhaustive search can produce some
document, unknown as yet, which may throw light
on the subject. It is a matter of no light mystery
why a Dispensation was obtained at such a time
and by whom it was effected. At this time Henry

336 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

VIII was engaged in the bitterest struggle of his
life, that regarding the supremacy of the Pope, so
that it was a direct violation of his policy to have
asked for, or even to recognise such a Dispensation
in the case of his own son whom he intended to
succeed him as King. Before a year had passed
he had actually thrown over the Papal authority
altogether, and had taken into his own hands the
headship of the National Church. What then was
behind such a maladroit action? If it had been
done as a piece of statecraft — the ostensible show-
ing that there was as yet no direct rupture between
the British Nation and the Papacy — it would have
lost its efficacy if it might be cited as a Court
favour rather than a national right. Moreover, as
it was to sanction by then existing canonical law
a marriage of Henry's son with a daughter of the
head of the most powerful Catholic House in Eng-
land, it could not be expected that Borne would
not use this in its strife for the continuation of its
supremacy. If Henry was directly concerned in
the matter, it was bad policy and unlike him to con-
ciliate Catholicism by a yielding on the part of one
who would be in the future the Head of the Re-
formed Church. Altogether it leaves one under
the impression that there must have been a more
personal cause than any yet spoken of. Some-
thing to be covered up, or from which suspicion
should be averted. There was already quite enough
material for a controversy in case Henry Fitzroy

THE BISLEY BOY 337

should come to the throne and it might be well to
minimise any further risk. But in such case what
was there to be covered up or from which suspicion
should be averted? Already Richmond held under
his father all the threads of government in his own
hand. If he ever should need to tighten them it
would be done by himself as ruler. There must
still be some reason which must be kept secret and
of which Henry himself did not and must not
know. Beyond this again was the question of the
personal ambition of "Bluff King Hal." It was
not sufficient for him that a barren heir should
succeed him — even if that heir was his own son.
He wanted to found a dynasty, and if he suspected
for an instant that after all his plotting and striv-
ing — all his titanic efforts to overcome such ob-
stacles as nations and religions — his hopes might
fail through lack of issue on his son's part he would
cease to waste his time and efforts on his behalf.
It is almost impossible to imagine that the Duke of
Richmond had not had some love affairs — if in-
deed he was only seventeen (of which there is a
doubt) — it must be borne in mind that both the
Lancastrians and the Yorkists who united in the
Tudor stock matured early. On both his father's
and mother's side Henry Fitzroy was of a pleas-
ure-loving, voluptuous nature, and as the masculine
element predominated in his make-up there is not
any great stretch of imagination required to be
satisfied that there was some young likeness of him

338 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

toddling or running about. But in a case like his
masculine mis-doing does not count ; it is only where
a woman's credit is at stake that secrecy is a vital
necessity. We must therefore look to the female
side to find a cause for any mystery which there
may be. So far as a boy of the right age is con-
cerned with a decided likeness to Henry VIII it
would not have required much searching about to
lay hands on a suitable one.

But here a new trouble would begin. It would
be beyond nature to expect that any mother would
consent, especially at a moment's notice, to her child
running such a risk as the substitute of the dead
Princess Elizabeth was taking, without some kind
of assurance or guarantee of his safety. More-
over, if there were other relatives, they would be
sure to know, and some of them to make trouble
unless their mouths were closed. Practically the
only chance of carrying such an enterprise through
would be if the substitute were an orphan or in a
worse position — one whose very life was an embar-
rassment to those to whom it should be most dear.

Here opens a field for romantic speculation.
Such need not clash with history which is a record
of fact. Call it romance if we will; indeed until
we have more perfect records we must. If inven-
tion is to be called in to the aid of deduction no one
can complain if these two methods of exercise of
intellect are kept apart and the boundaries between
them are duly charted. Any speculation beyond

THE BISLEY BOYj 339

this can be only regarded as belonging to the region
of pure fiction.

In one way there is a duty which the reader must
not shirk, if only on his own account : not to refuse
to accept facts without due consideration. Wildly
improbable as the Bisley story is, it is not impos-
sible. Whoever says, offhand, that such a story
is untrue on the face of it ought to study the
account of a death reported at Colchester in Essex
just a hundred years ago. A servant died who
had been in the same situation as housemaid and
nurse for thirty years. But only after death was
the true sex of the apparent woman discovered.
It was masculine !

Here I must remind such readers as honour my
work with their attention that I am venturing
merely to tell a tradition sanctioned by long time,
and that I only give as comments historical facts
which may be tested by any student. I have in-
vented and shall invent nothing; and only claim
the same right which I have in common with every
one else — that of forming my own opinion.

Here it is that we may consider certain additions
to the original Bisley tradition. How these are
connected with the main story is impossible to say
after the lapse of centuries; but in all probability
there is a basis of ancient belief in all that has
been added. The following items cover the addi-
tional ground.

340 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

When the governess wished to hide the secret
hurriedly, she hid the body, intending it to be only
temporarily, in the stone coffin which lay in the
garden at Overcourt outside the Princess's window.

Some tens of years ago the bones of a young
girl lying amidst rags of fine clothing were found
in the stone coffin.

The finder was a churchman — a man of the high-
est character and a member of a celebrated eccle-
siastical family.

The said finder firmly believed in the story of
the Bisley Boy.

Before Elizabeth came to the throne all those
who knew the secret of the substitution were in
some way got rid of or their silence assured.

The name of the substituted youth was Neville;
or such was the name of the family with whom he
was living at the time.

There are several persons in the neighbourhood
of Bisley who accept the general truth of the story
even if some of the minor details appear at first
glance to be inharmonious. These persons are not
of the ordinary class of gossipers, but men and
women of light and leading who have fixed places
in the great world and in the social life of their
own neighbourhood. With some of them the truth
of the story is an old belief which makes a tie with
any new investigator.

THE BISLEY BOY 341

The Unfulfilled Marriage

The remaining' point to touch on is the unfulfilled
marriage of the Duke of Richmond. This cer-
tainly needs some explanation, or else the mystery;
remains dark as ever.

Here we have two young persons of more than
fair presence, and graced with all the endearing
qualities that the mind as well as the eye can grasp.
We have the assurance of Chronicles regarding
Henry Fitzroy; and from Holbein's picture we
can judge for ourselves of the lady's merits. They
are both well-to-do. The lady, one of title, daugh-
ter of one of the most prominent Dukes in Eng-
land, the man then holding many of the most
important posts in the State, and with every expec-
tation of wearing in due course the purple of roy-
alty. They both come of families of which other
members have been notorious for amatory episodes ;
voluptuousness is in their blood. They have been
old friends — and yet when they marry they at once
separate, she going to her own folk and he to
Windsor. Seemingly they do not meet again in the
two and a half years that elapse before his death.
The story about his youth and health preventing
cohabitation is all moonshine. The affair points
to the likelihood of some ante-matrimonial liaison
of which, as yet, we know nothing. Applying the
experiences of ordinary life in such cases, we can
easily believe that Mary Howard, egged on by her

342 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

unscrupulous and ambitiously-intriguing brother,
was for ulterior purposes either forced or helped
into an intrigue with the young Duke. There is no
doubt that Surrey was unscrupulous enough for it.
A similar design on his part — only infinitely more
base — cost him his head. He had tried to induce
his sister, Duchess of Richmond, to become mis-
tress of Henry VIII — her own father-in-law! — so
that she might have power over him; and it does
not seem that there was any wonderful indignation
on the part of the lady at the shameful proposal.
We are told that when Sir John Gates and
Sir Richard Southwell, the royal Commission-
ers for examining witnesses in the case of the
charge of treason against the Duke of Nor-
folk and the Earl of Surrey, arrived at Ken-
ninghall in the early morning and made known
their general purposes in coming, the Duchess of
Richmond "almost fainted." But all the same
when she knew more exactly what they wanted she
promised without any forcing to tell all she knew.
As a matter of fact her evidence (with that of
Elizabeth Holland, the mistress of the Duke of
Norfolk) , whilst it helped to get Norfolk off, aided
in condemning Surrey. There must have been
some other cause for her consternation. She had
been bred up in the midst of intrigues, polemical
and dynastic as well as of personal ambition, and
was well inured to keeping her countenance as well
as her head in moments of stress. The cause of

THE BISLEY BOY 343

her "almost fainting" must have been something
which concerned her even more nearly than either
father or brother. It could only have been fear
for her child or herself — or for both. It is possible
that she dreaded discovery of some sort. Omne
ignotum pro magnifico. Suspicion has long flex-
ible tentacula, with eyes and ears at the end of
them, which can penetrate everywhere and see and
hear everything. She knew how to dread suspicion
and to fear the consequences which must result
from inquiry or investigation of any sort. If she
had had a child it must have been kept hidden, and
if possible far away — as the unknown Boy was
at Bisley. Indeed the Howards had immense fam-
ily ramifications and several of them had collateral
relationships in and about Bisley. There were
Nevilles there, and doubtless some of them were
poor relations relegated to the far away place where
living was cheap and where they might augment
their tenuous incomes by taking in even poorer
relations than themselves whose rich relatives
wished to hide them away. It is only a surmise;
but if there had been a case of a child unaccounted
for, which any member of so great a family as
the Howards wished to keep dark, it would be hard
to find a more favourable locality than the little
almost inaccessible hamlet in the Cotswolds. If
there were such a child, how easy it would all have
been. When the Duke was married he was four-
teen or perhaps sixteen at most — an age which

344 FAMOUS IMPOSTORS

though over-young for fatherhood in the case of
ordinary men seemed to offer to the Plantagenet-
York-Lancaster blood no absolute difficulty of
taking up such responsibility. As Elizabeth
was only born some two months before the
Duke's marriage there was not any time to
spare — a fact which would doubtless have been
used to his advantage if Henry's natural son had
lived. In all probability Richmond's marriage was
a part of the plot for aggrandisement of the How-
ards which began with the unscrupulous securing
by Surrey of the son of Henry VIII at the cost
of his sister's honour; and ended with the death of
Surrey as a traitor — a doom which his father only
escaped by the King dying whilst the Act of At-
tainder was lying ready for his signature. If this
reasoning be correct — though the data on which it
is founded be meagre and without actual proof —
as yet — the risk of Duchess Mary's child born be-
fore her marriage must have been a terrible hazard.
On one side perhaps the most powerful sceptre in
the world as guerdon; on the other death and ruin
of the child on which such hopes were built. No
wonder then that Duchess Mary "almost fainted"
when in the early dawn the King's Commissioners
conveyed to her the broad object of their com-
ing. No wonder that freed by larger knowledge
from the worst apprehension which could be for
her, she announced her willingness to conceal noth-
ing that she knew. That promise could not and

THE BISLEY BOY 345

would not have been made had the whole range of
possibilities, which as yet no one suspected, been
opened to their investigation. For even beyond
the concern which she felt from the arbitrary power
of the King and at the remorseless grip of the law,
she had reason to doubt her own kin — the nearest
of them — in such a struggle as was going on
around them when the whole of the Empire, the
Kingdom of England, France and Spain, and the
Papacy were close to the melting-pot. It would
have been but a poor look-out for a youth of a
little more than a dozen years of age had fate made
him the shuttlecock of such strenuous players who
did not hold "fair play" as a primary rule of the
game in which they were engaged.

In his Life of Elizabeth, Gregario Leti concludes
a panegyric on the Queen's beauty with the follow-
ing: "This was accompanied by such inward quali-
ties that those who knew her were accustomed to
say that heaven had given her such rare qualities
that she was doubtless reserved for some great work
in the world." The Italian historian perhaps
"builded better than he knew," for whether the
phrase applies to the one who is supposed to have
occupied the throne or one who did so occupy it,
it is equally true. The world at that crisis wanted
just such an one as Elizabeth. All honour to her
whosoever she may have been, boy or girl matters
not.

INDEX

Alcacer-el-Kebir, battle of, 20-
22, 25.

Ahasuerus, 111-114.

Alvares, Matheus, 23.

Althotas, 82.

Ascham, Roger, letters of con-
cerning Elizabeth, 316-318.

Ashley, Mrs. Catherine, 284, 285,
298," 315, 321, 323, 324.

Austin, "Beau," murder of by
John Law, 124, 134.

Balsamo, Joseph, early life of,

80-82.
Bank of England, early history

of, 140-142.
Banque Generale, founding of by

John Law, 126.
Banque Royale, control of by

John Law, 127, 130.
Berners Street Hoax, 252-254.
Beugnot, Cointe de, description

of Cagliostro by, 86, 87.
Bingham, Jinny, Mother Red-

Cap, 186-189.
Bisley, 286-291, 294.
Bisley Boy, The, 283-345.
Bisley Tradition, The, 291-294,

339-340.
Bogus Sausages, 260-262.
Brinvilliers, Marquis de, 169-172.
Brunneau, Mathurin, 40^-1.
Buried Treasure Hoax, The, 258-

259.

Cagliostro, career of, 80-94.

Castro, Don John de, prophecy
of concerning Sebastian, 24,
visit of to impostor, 26-27.

Cat Hoax, The, 255.

Catizzone, Marco Tullio, 27, 28,
29.

Catherine, Empress, 34.

Caule, Rev. John, denunciation of
Matthew Hopkins by, 197-198.

Chevalier d'Eon, career of, 269-
280.

Compagnie des Indes, controlled
by John Law, 127, 130.

Cork, Simnel and Warbeck fa-
vored by, 8-9.

Cumberland, Duke of, 55, 56, 57,
58.

Croly, Rev. George, author of
"Salathiel," 114-115.

Czar, The False, 31-35.

Dauphins, The False, 36-48.
Darien Company, The, 142-143.
Dean Swift's Hoax, 259-260.
Dee, Dr. John, career of, 155-
163.

East India Company, history of
useful to John Law, 138-140.

East, Mary, career of as a man,
241-246.

Edward IV, resemblance of to
Perk in Warbeck, 7, 11-12.

347

348

INDEX

Elizabeth, Queen, changes in
youthful character of, 315-316,
early life of as concerned with
Bisley tradition, 301-306, iden-
tity of, 310-315, 326, interest
of in Dr. Dee, 159, 160, per-
sonality of, 316-326, secret of,
284-286.

Feliciana, Lorenza de, wife of
Cagliostro, 83-84, 89, 94.

Flanders, importance of in 15th
century, 6.

Fontolive, personator of Dauphin,
40.

Gordon, Catherine, marriage of to
Perkin Warbeck, 14.

Hehl, Father, controversy of with
Mesmer, 99.

Henry VII, difficulties of, 3-4,
measures of against Perkin
Warbeck, 13-14.

Henry VIII, activities of, 304-
307, 309, desire of for son, 302-
303, father of Duke of Rich-
mond, 327-329, mystery of at-
tude of toward Papacy, 336,
visit of to Bisley, 291-293.

Herbert, Henri, story of as per-
sonator of the Dauphin, 41-46.

Hervagault, Jean Marie, attempt
of to personate the Dauphin,
39-40.

Hoaxes, 249-265.

Hoaxed Burglars, 260.

Hohenheim, Theophrastus Bom-
bast von, real name of Para-
celsus, early life of, 72-75.

Hook, Theodore, 252, 254.

Hopkins, Matthew, career of as
witch-finder, 190-198.

James IV, belief of in Perkin

Warbeck, 13.
Joinville, Prince de, settlement

of Eleazar Williams' claim by,

47.

Kelley, Sir Edward, career of,
175-181, friendship of with Dr.
Dee, 161-163.

Kenealy, Dr., course of as coun-
sel for Tichborne Claimant,
222-223.

"King of Penemacor," 22-23.

"Knight of the Cross," 23-29.

Laski, Palatine Albert, interest

of in Dr. Dee and Sir Edward

Kelley, 161, 178-179.
Law, John, career and character

of, 123-144.
Louis XV, friendliness of for

Chevalier d'Eon, 270, 271, 273,

274.
Louis XVII, 36.
Locke, Richard Adams, author

of Moon Hoax, 265.
Luie, Jean, testimony of for

Tichborne Claimant, 221-2-2-2.

Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy,
interest of in Perkin Warbeck,
10-11.

Marie Antoinette, 90-93.

Marriage Hoax, The, 257.

Maupin, Mile, de, career of, 235-
241.

Mesmer, Frederic-Antoine, career
of, 95-103.

Military Review, The, 256.

Mississippi Scheme, The, forma-
tion of by John Law, 126,
growth and collapse of, 127-
133.

INDEX

349

Mother Damnable, story of, 182-
189.

Mother Black-Cap, 182, 183, 185.

Mother Red-Cap, 182, 183, 186.

Moon Hoax, The, 262-265.

Morocco, invasion of by Sebas-
tian, 19-21.

Motte, Madame de la, plot of
concerning Queen's Necklace,
91-93.

Mueley Abd-el-Mulek, 20-21.

Naundorf, attempt of to person-
ate the Dauphin, 46.

Orton, Arthur, career of as Tich-
borne Claimant, 201, 214-224.

Paracelsus, career of, 71-79.
Paradis, Mile., controversy over

as patient of Mesmer, 100-101.
Paris, Matthew, credibility of,

108-111, 117-118, narrative of

concerning Wandering Jew,

107-108.
Parr, Queen Catherine, 306, 308,

309, 312, 315, 323, 324, 325.
Parry, Thomas, 284, 285, 298, 315,

321, 323.
Persat, attempt of to personate

the Dauphin, 40.
Pucci, Francis, combination of

with Sir Edward Kelley, 179.

Richard III, consequences of law-
less acts of, 3-4.

Richmond, Duke of, life of as a
natural son of Henry VIII,
326-332, 341.

Richmond, Duchess of, 334-335,
341-345.

Rohan, Cardinal Prince de, 91-
94.

Ryves, Mrs. A. T., 49, law-suit
of attacking succession to Eng-
lish throne, 58-67.

Stephen, King of Poland, inter-
est of in Dr. Dee,. 179.

Snell, Hannah, career of as sol-
dier and sailor, 231-234.

Tichborne Claimant, The, 201-

224.
Tichborne Case, trial of, 218-223.
Tichborne, Baronetcy of, 252.
Tichborne, Lady Mabell, doom

foretold by, 203-204.
Tichborne, Lady, belief of in

-son's existence, 213-214.
Tichborne, Roger, 206-212.
Toil-Gate Hoax, The, 256-257.

Voison, Madame, career of, 164-
174.

Walpole, Horace, theory of con-
cerning Perkin Warbeck, 8.

Wandering Jew, The, 107-120.

Warbeck, Perkin, career of, 5-15.

Werbecque, Jehan, 5-6.

Westphalus, statements of con-
cerning Wandering Jew, 113,
114.

Williams, Eleazar, story of as
personator of the Dauphin, 46-
48.

Wilmot, James, 50, 51, 53, 54.

Wilmot, Olive, 50, 55.

Witchcraft, 147-198, English
statutes concerning, 147-148.

Women, attempts of to disguise
themselves as men, 227-231.

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